AOL's push to reduce spam lands Goodmail in hot seat
06.03.2006

Deals with AOL and Yahoo have landed Goodmail Systems on the high-tech map and offered the strongest validation yet for its product.

So why does CEO Richard Gingras feel like he's caught in the eye of an e-mail hurricane? "I'm not too thrilled about the recent attention," he says.

It's the fallout from being the technology provider in a scrum between AOL, the No. 1 Internet service provider, which plans to charge businesses for commercial e-mail, and a coalition of 50 companies claiming the plan is e-mail taxation. The squabble has obscured what many e-mail experts, such as Eric Allman, chief science officer at e-mail security firm Sendmail, say is a sensible, effective technology to blunt spam.

When Gingras co-founded Goodmail with Daniel Dreymann in May 2003, they approached handling e-mail in a new way. "Before, all of the focus was on finding the bad mail," Gingras says. "We're at the other end of the spectrum. We identify only the good stuff and let it through."

As e-mail grows in power and capability, "consumer trust is important," Gingras says, underscoring the mission of the 35-employee company in Mountain View, Calif. Its motto: "Restoring trust in e-mail."