Knowing how the spam filters work will make you better prepared for when they fail

Mar 20, 2012 12:11 GMT  ·  By

Email spam filters have really gotten better in recent years. Compared to past years, few spammy messages make it into our inbox. Granted, some still do and some legitimate messages get labeled as spam, but no system is perfect.

Still, while you may be assured that your spam filter does a good job, you may still want to know why some messages were marked as spam, when the reason is not obvious.

This is where a new feature in Gmail comes in, spam messages now have an explanation for the reason why they were marked as such.

"We’ll be showing a brief explanation at the top of each of your spam messages. Simply look at any message in your spam folder and now you can find out why it was put there and learn about any potentially harmful content within the message," Google explained.

This will only interest a few users, but information can only be a good thing. Spam filters do work and work well, but most people have no idea how and why. This is a big reason why most people don't trust technology, they don't know how it works.

They may use Facebook in drones, they may use Google Search, but they still have a feeling in the back of their head that "something" must be happening behind their backs though they don't know exactly what.

With many spam messages, it's pretty easy to figure out why they've been labeled as such, the poor grammar, the weird sentences and spectacular titles. But spammers are getting better, with some messages you'd have a hard time realizing it until you're half way through.

Automated systems may fare better than you in these cases. What's more, the new helpful info next to each spam message may prepare you better for messages that make it through to your inbox.