While I was away for the EEC and a short post event vacation a major announcement dropped. Goodmail will be ceasing our operations effective Tuesday, February 8.

At first I was a little shocked at the news but at the same time I was not completely surprised either.

Knowing the team behind the Certified Mail product I appreciate their dedication and hard work to solving a genuine problem faced by the online marketing community – distinguishing yourself from the noise created by spam in the subscribers inbox.

The idea was, and still is, a good one – but I believe the execution was flawed. Traction with marketers was light as the hurdles to implement the imprinting technology was simply to complex for many to implement, and the ISPs commitments to the service was just not growing at the same rate as many of the competing reputation services.

I believe competition is a good thing, and the reputation services market is shrinking with Goodmail bowing out. I’m excited to see what will come from this in the future – who will rise up to take on the remaining giants.

I wish the team behind Goodmail luck and success in the future – I know this will not be the last we see of you, and we will see you surface again soon.