Here's a new and unique question that I was just asked: What about DMARC at the sub-subdomain level, multiple levels deep? If I have a DMARC record for my subdomain e.spamresource.com, and then I set up a subdomain one level deeper, maybe transactional.e.spamresource.com, and THAT subdomain doesn't have a DMARC record, won't it inherit the DMARC record from e.spamresource.com? Doesn't DMARC always "trickle down" at every level? Nope! Read on to understand why. Most DMARC checkers aren't going to find (and shouldn't find) a DMARC policy for transactional.e.spamresource.com by checking one l ..read more

As part of their previously-announced intention to disable Less Secure Access (LSA) support, Google recently sent out another email notification warning that eventually, Google Workspace accounts will only allow access to apps using OAuth. Here's that shutdown timeline: Beginning June 15, 2024 -- LSA settings will be removed from the Google Workspace console. Beginning September 30, 2024 -- Access to LSAs will be turned off for all Google Workspace accounts. Any CalDAV, CardDAV, IMAP, and POP access will now require OAuth. The latest Google notification email does indicate that app passwor ..read more

We’re trying something new this time! I’ve invited my friend Skyler Holobach (whom I interviewed previously) to take some space on Spam Resource and use it to interview someone, whoever she wants, on whatever topics she wants. Take it away, Skyler: My friend Annalivia is who I want to be when I grow up. She knows her way around all things email, from building an ESP to tracking down spammers to solving the trickiest of deliverability issues. Not only is she incredible at what she does for work, she’s also one of the most delightful people I’ve ever met. She’s witty, she’s protective of her ..read more

Who hosts what mail? MBP Spotlight is the new series here at Spam Resource where I’ll share ranking data for the top mailbox providers (including B2B!) based on where they fall in the top ten million domains. Some entries might have more info, some entries might have less, depending on what information I know about them and what information I can find online. To count rankings, I took a snapshot of MX records for the top ten million domains, and then rolled them up based on the domain name hosting mail for each domain. That shows me how many domains have their inbound email hosted by hosted ..read more

Hey, it's me! In my first blog post ever for Valimail. The topic: Connecting the dots between DMARC and deliverability. Why? To remind folks that these two things do indeed overlap and that folks sending marketing mail need to understand how both work together to impact the ability to get mail delivered successfully. Over on the Valimail blog, I'll do my best to talk about the intersection of DMARC and deliverability, how DMARC helps to improve deliverability, and what marketing senders need to keep in mind as the mailbox provider sender requirements continue to evolve. I'll probably talk ab ..read more

Let’s decode another acronym! DNS is a term not limited to email deliverability, but it sure does show up there quite a bit. And it stands for: Domain Name System. DNS is the phone book or address book of the internet. You type “www.google.com” into a web browser. The web browser (or the computer that it is running on) needs to figure out what server to connect to, and that server is identified by an IP address (an IPv4 or IPv6 IP address, the distinction being something that I’ll ignore for the moment). DNS is the function of looking up www.google.com to see what server handles the website ..read more

Folks have been reporting these past few weeks that centralized subscription management is coming to Google’s Gmail. This is a change, and change is scary, so many folks have questions and concerns. What challenges will this bring and how will this make it harder for me to get my email delivered? It turns out, the concept of centralized subscription management at the recipient end isn’t as new as you might think. Above are screenshots of how the functionality exists and works today for mail you send to Yahoo and Microsoft subscribers. With the new list-unsubscribe requirements (and even wit ..read more

It’s that time again! Time to define more deliverability terminology, as we do every so often here in the DELIVTERMS series on Spam Resource. Today, let’s define email authentication. What is email authentication? Wikipedia defines it as “a collection of techniques aimed at providing verifiable information about the origin of email messages by validating the domain ownership of any [mail servers] who participated in transferring and possibly modifying a message.” I’d call that mostly correct. Here’s what I’d say, instead: Email authentication is a collection of techniques aimed at providi ..read more

Front, a "customer operations platform that helps teams streamline communication and deliver exceptional service at scale," is hiring! They're looking for an email/deliverability-focused experienced backend engineer to "join the team responsible for the core systems which process millions of events delivering emails, SMS, and other messages to and from Front quickly and reliably." Click here to learn more and/or to apply for the "Backend Software Engineer, Deliverability" role. This is a free (not sponsored) job posting shared courtesy of Spam Resource ..read more

Just this week, Guy Hanson and Rafael Viana from Validity were joined by Microsoft's Jeff Dellapina and Mihai Costea in a live webinar talking about the current state-of-the-state when it comes to email deliverability for sending to Microsoft properties. The Microsoft folks don't always spend a ton of time in the public eye, so I think it was great of them to take this time to share their thoughts, and take questions from the audience. I found it interesting enough that I thought I'd share a link to it here, because if you're in the deliverability space and looking to hear from Microsoft dir ..read more