Spam-busting firms fear Microsoft's muscling in

Microsoft Corp's move to offer stronger anti-spam technology for its e-mail server software could spell trouble for companies that are trying to build businesses on products that filter out unwanted electronic pitches.

But -- at least for now -- Microsoft and some of its potential rivals agree that the flood of junk messages is a big enough problem that many companies and different approaches will be needed to stem the flow of unsolicited e-mail.

"We don't believe there's one single technology that's going to get rid of spam," said Francois Lavaste, vice president of marketing at Brightmail, an antispam firm. "There's no silver bullet."

During a speech Sunday at the Comdex trade show in Las Vegas, Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates unveiled an add-on to the company's Exchange Server 2003 software called Intelligent Message Filter. It's expected to be available in the first half of next year.

Exchange already offers some anti-spam protection, with support for some message filtering and block lists.

The add-on goes a step further, offering a technology called Smart-Screen that learns what is or isn't spam and applies the patterns to filter other messages.

SmartScreen also is being used in Microsoft's Outlook 2003 e-mail program as well as the company's Hotmail and MSN online service.

"We believe these new approaches will shift the tide, that between what we're doing with technology and what's being done on the legal front, it makes the business proposition for spammers no longer attractive," Gates said.

Microsoft has a history of leveraging its operating system software dominance and elbowing its way into markets at the expense of competition.

"If it gets to the point where they're going to include it for no charge, then it could be Netscape all over again," said Walter Janow-ski, a Gartner Inc analyst.

Scott Petry, vice president of products and engineering at the spam-blocking company Postini, said he won't be running newspaper ads welcoming Microsoft to the industry. But, he added, the move was expected and will end up helping legitimize the industry further.

"The spam problem is out of control," he said. "Many customers are getting to the point where they're losing faith in e-mail as a communications mechanism, and I think that's dangerous."