New filter blocks newsletters and marketing emails

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For some time we have working on a new type of filter which blocks newsletters and marketing emails. We have being testing it for a while we are really happy with the progress. So today we tell you a little bit more about how it works. Really soon we will enable new functionality in our iPhone, Android and web apps, enabling you to control this filter. (We actually updated our web site today already)

First, some background. As you know you can report spam that SpamDrain has failed to block. This is done in our mobile apps or by logging on to our web site. We have noticed that different users have different definitions of spam. The most obvious definition might be “spam is everything I don’t want in my inbox” (even messages you have accepted to receive but don’t take the time to unsubscribe to). However, there is a problem with this definition. Some people want coupon offers from their local store and some do not want them. With viagra mail it’s much simpler – nobody wants that crap.

We have therefore chosen to introduce this new filter which identifies newsletters and marketing emails and put them in your Archive marked as “Newsletters”. These emails are always listed in your daily/weekly/monthly SpamDrain report so you never have to worry about missing important offers. Of course, you will be able to retrieve/release these blocked message as usual. When retrieving blocked messages from the Archive, SpamDrain will learn not to block similar messages again. You can also turn this filter entirely off.

To train our filters to become even more efficient, we appreciate if you our users could give us a little help when retrieving a message: You will now be asked to classify the message. By helping us deciding why you are retrieving a specific message you will help improving the overall filtering accuracy. The choice you will be given is:

You will get the same question when retrieving a message in the mobile apps.

We hope you will like these improvements – and hey, if you don’t – you can always turn the newsletter filter off. We hope you will enjoy receiving even less spam in the future. Please let us know what you think about these updates.

Please let us know what you think about these updates.

More for more information about the newsletter filter and retrieval of messages from the Archive.

Filtering disturbances [solved]

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This weekend we have experienced disturbances in some of our filtering servers. We believed that we solved all problems on Sunday 3 July, but today we found some more issues which now have been resolved.

During the passed disturbances you may have experienced some delays in email delivery if using our domain filtering. If using POP3/IMAP filtering you may have gotten spam slipping through since SpamDrain hasn’t filtered your email account with the normal frequency.

We apologize the inconvenience and are monitoring all servers extra carefully the next days.

New terms and conditions for SpamDrain

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We have updated our terms and conditions as per 1st July 2011. We do this to make our terms easier to read and understand, and better reflect product improvements we’ve made lately to SpamDrain. Please read the new terms at spamdrain.net/en/terms-and-conditions-for-spamdrain.

The terms will be affective for new customers now and for current customer as of August 1st 2011.

When the new terms is effective, you will for example be able to view the content of messages in the “Report” section. This is a highly wanted feature for many of our users. This way it will be easier for you to report missed spam since you will be able to see the entire message before deciding if it was a missed spam or not.

Please also note that by continuing to use SpamDrain, you agree to our new Terms and Conditions which will be effective on August 1st, 2011.

Network maintenance

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There will be some maintanance work on network infrastructure in one of the SpamDrain data centers the coming two nights (CET time):

Wednesday 05/25/2011 between 0:30am and 6:00am CET (UTC/GMT +1 hour)

Thursday 05/26/2011 between 0:30am and 6:00am CET (UTC/GMT +1 hour)

During this time you may experience down times and increased response times. If you experience problems during this time please be patient. Things should go back to normal at least after 8am.

Win a spam free iPad 2 with SpamDrain

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The all-new SpamDrain is here!
We have now launched a brand new version SpamDrain. It is based on the same great technology as before but it has a new look and it is super easy to use.

Win a spam free iPad 2

We want the world hear the great news and try the new app. We have therefore decided to hold a competition here on Facebook. If 1000 persons or more like us before the end of May we will give an iPad 2 with WiFi + 3G to the person who is best at guessing how many spam we catch this month.

You can guess as many times as you like and we will be giving some clues here on the wall.

Lets stop that spam!

Win your spam free iPad 2.

Updates – report/retrieve in lists and pausing filtering

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Yesterday we made some updates which hopefully will continue to improve the experience of SpamDrain. We added the possibility to report or retrieve directly in the message lists (Archive and Report), so you do not need to click the message in order to report it. The Report button appears once you hover over the row. Note that you will not need to confirm the reporting so before you click, be sure you really wish to report it as spam.


We also added the hover feature in other lists, so actions appears once you move your mouse over the row. In the filtered address lists, for example, you will now see the Delete icon and the new Pause icon when moving the mouse over the row. Pause filtering is a new feature we have added to give you more control over your SpamDrain account.

Clicking the Pause button will pause the filtering for this address. Once paused, SpamDrain will stop accessing your e-mail account. If you are using domain filtering, SpamDrain will simply let everything through for the paused address.

Once paused, a Play icon is displayed instead which once clicked will start the filtering again.

This pause feature is useful if you have problem with your e-mail access and want to see if SpamDrain is locking your mailbox or if you simply wish to go back to the good old times when tons of spam reached your inbox 😉

We have also made some minor improvements in the login and sign up user interface.

The next few weeks we will continue working with minor improvements and adding help documentation where needed.

Feel free to comment the changes we made recently. Your opinion is the most valuable we have!

New website and webapp released

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The last couple of months we have been working on improving the webapp. The goal has been to make it easier to get started with SpamDrain and making it even more easier to use than before.

Today we finally made the first step launching the a new SpamDrain. We will be making quite a few more improvements the coming months. Please feel free to give us feedback!

With the release today, we also introduce two levels of SpamDrain: SpamDrain and SpamDrain+. Please read more on our website:

spamdrain.net