CertifiedEmail: Now with DKIM

When we designed CertifiedEmail, a few years back, there was no suitable standard for digitally signing an email message. Goodmail thus went and used standard components, e.g. RSA for the digital signature, and SHA-1 for hashing a digest, but we were forced to define our own process for combining these components into an authentication layer.

Over the past few years, an email authentication standard emerged: first in the form of DomainKeys, and later, its successor, DKIM.

It was a relatively simple matter for us to substitute DKIM for our original authentication layer. The authentication layer was, and still is, a rather prosaic component of CertifiedEmail. The other security components, the “secret sauce” that made CertifiedEmail the best and the only secure email certification system, remain in place. DKIM-based CertifiedEmail is as secure as the original specification of CertifiedEmail.

By adopting DKIM, not only do we embrace and help further propagate a worthy standard, we also provide our customers with additional value. Beyond the large number of mailboxes operated by providers who agreed contractually to grant privileges to CertifiedEmail messages, senders of CertifiedEmail will now also enjoy improved deliverability with other receivers who value the fact that CertifiedEmail messages are signed by a trusted third party.

You can read the press release (replete with quotes from luminaries and a car safety metaphor) here.

WSJ - Video Gets Entrée Into Email

Read the whole Wall Street Journal article, but let me cherry pick a few gems (mixed metaphors, I know):

Technology From Goodmail Opens a Long-Sought Horizon for Marketers

Video is coming to email.

Email-security firm Goodmail Systems plans to introduce Thursday a new technology to help marketers and media companies send videos via email. It screens video messages for bugs and viruses and emails them to consumers who have opted to receive them. The Mountain View, Calif., start-up is launching its video email service with Time Warner's AOL unit.

Adding video to email marketing boosts customers' interaction -- such as opening the email or clicking on any of the content -- by as much as 200% to 300%

Live Nation will be among the first marketers to test video emails with Goodmail. The concert promoter relies heavily on email marketing, sending 15,000 promotions last year to customers who subscribed to receive updates about events. Adding video to those messages will give Live Nation the chance to better showcase its artists and give consumers a preview of shows, says Bob Frady, the company's vice president of digital marketing. It tested emails featuring video of Katy Perry as part of its efforts to promote the pop singer.

The email newsletter DailyCandy, which covers fashion and culture for a mostly female audience, plans to start sending videos via Goodmail next week. The newsletter, owned by Comcast, will begin producing videos segments to complement its usual fare like shopping tips and restaurant reviews, says Catherine Levene, chief operating officer. It plans to sell short commercial spots to play before the programming starts.

Thrillist, a newsletter which has 750,000 subscribers aimed at young urban men, plans to send video messages only if they have been paid for by advertisers, says founder Ben Lerer. Thrillist said it has sold its first video campaign to camera maker Canon.