Although there’s no sign that pop-up ads and junk e-mail are going away, they might not be the worst online annoyances anymore.
Spim is on the way.
Part spam and part instant message, spim – or spam over IM – sends an advertisement through online chatting programs such as AOL Instant Messenger, MSN Messenger and Yahoo Messenger.
The companies behind the chatting programs don’t approve the messages, just as e-mail providers don’t approve spam.
But if enough computer users respond to ads over instant messaging, spim marketers will see a payoff from their investments in the technology and efforts to stay ahead of security.
“Anything that has financial benefits is a huge motivator,” said Yahoo spokeswoman Terrell Karlsten. “You see spammers exploiting e-mail, doing anything they can to get users. Now you’re seeing the crossover.
“It’s not worth their while if we make it hard.”
The amount of spim sent is expected to increase to 1.2 billion messages this year, up from 400 million in 2003, reports the Radicati Group, a technology market research firm based in Palo Alto, Calif.
Spim is growing to match the increasing popularity of instant messaging. More people are signing up for the person-to-person chat programs, supplying more IM screen names for spimmers to target. For now, few people are frequent victims of spim, so even unfamiliar messages can seem trustworthy.
Robot-generated spim can be sent to millions of users at a time. Other types spread like a virus.
In February, the “Osama Found” application spread through AOL Instant Messenger by sending a link claiming Osama bin Laden had been captured. The message appeared to be sent by a friend but led users to a game Web site.
After downloading, the game would continue the message chain and reconfigure the IM program to receive advertising.
But even with spim numbers growing into billions, e-mail spam continues to dominate workday annoyances and trash folders. IM software programmers say they’ve learned from the e-mail epidemic.
This time, they’re prepared.
“It’s a much easier to win this war than e-mail,” said Ben Littauer, a contributing consultant to Ferris Research, a marketing research firm in San Francisco. “There are enough controls that it’s not going to get out of control the way spam did.”
IM programs operate on closed networks that require registration, unlike some e-mail. America Online, Yahoo and MSN track usage, closing spim-sending accounts. Scores of security features, such as invisibility modes, encryption and buddies-only settings, are being introduced or improved. Providers are sealing security holes and testing call-and-response systems that require users to confirm their identities before their messages will be sent.
But people using IM programs at home – many of them teenagers – aren’t likely to know security options or to heed security warnings.
“It’s not always feasible, especially if you are a little girl at school hoping for the cute boy to message you,” said Genelle Hung, a market analyst for the Radicati Group. “It’s the social impact that leads people to not do the right thing. They’re not always knowledgeable about the best practices.”
The increasing popularity of instant messaging at work is adding to spim’s threat. Teens who grew up instant messaging are in the work force now, and more businesses are yielding to clients’ requests for IM communication.
Massachusetts-based IMlogic, which manages enterprise instant message systems, estimates that 80 percent of businesses have at least one employee running an IM program for work purposes. Although some have internal networks, most rely on public programs such as AOL, MSN and Yahoo.
“All of the things we’ve seen on e-mail are happening on IM, but they’re happening earlier in the cycle and at a faster rate,” said David Fowler, IMlogic’s vice president of marketing and strategic alliances. “It’s disruptive because it pops up on your screen.
“Getting e-mail with a sales pitch attached to it is disruptive. Now imagine that sales rep rushing into your office.”
However tempting some spim offers seem, they might not be legal. Misleading advertisements, pornography solicitations for people younger than 18 and pyramid schemes through spim could be covered by current consumer protection laws. New statutes dealing with e-mail, such as the federal CAN-SPAM Act, also could apply to the IM phenomenom, especially if it gains more attention by annoying more people.
“The jury is still out on whether people will really respond to get-rich-quick schemes over IM,” said Anita Ramasastry, a professor and director of the Shidler Center for Law, Commerce and Technology at the University of Washington.
“If self-regulation or the way in which the user can control the technology works, then self-regulation is entirely appropriate. With spam, it was a situation where the best practices weren’t controlling what was happening.”
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