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Following news that it had moved up to No. 3 on The Spamhaus Project’s list of the world’s worst spam problem networks, Google said it has rectified most of the problems.
Spamhaus, an international non-profit that fights spammers, had said that Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) made its list because the search giant had 31 spam-related problems on its sites, including hosting various types of e-mail frauds and gangs of criminal spammers.
Now, after taking steps to address the issues and inform Spamhaus of its progress, Google no longer appears on the latest edition of Spamhaus’ list.
Spokespeople from Spamhaus did not return a request for comment by press time.
Brad Taylor, known as the Gmail Spam Czar within Google, told InternetNews.com that the problem stemmed a lack of communication.
“A lot of times, we took care of the problems but just didn’t report them to Spamhaus or follow up with them,” he said. “We should have worked with them better than we did.”
Taylor said all but two of the 31 issues Spamhaus identified have been resolved, and that Google is working on those last two now.
The unresolved issues are the use of Google Docs and Gmail to send spam. Taylor said Google will ensure these are safe.
“We eat our own dog food — we run on Gmail and Google Docs, and if there’s a problem with either, we hear about it,” he said. “We’re going to make sure spam will not kill those products.”
Taylor added that he has a good relationship at Spamhaus. But, he said, this may not be the case at other Google units because of its sheer size — a problem he hopes to address.
“I really admire the work Spamhaus does, because when you get into their business, you’ll have a lot of very wealthy spammers fighting against you with lots of resources,” he added.
