Online anthrax

According to an engineer at Google, the number of spam emails being sent has flattened and may be trending downward, reports Wired.

The statement comes from Google software engineer Brad Taylor. He says the number of spam messages being sent through the company's Gmail service has steadily decreased in the last year.

That, he says, may be a sign spammers realize Gmail's filters are so tight it's not even worth the effort.

Others observing the spam world say that while filters are becoming better at catching these emails, the number of spam messages sent continues to rise.

But smarter filters should mean the amount that gets through to users should remain relatively flat.

In mid-November, Google's Postini debuted "contextual email security."

By algorithmically gauging the quality of an email based on what it contains, the system can better encrypt or block it, as necessary. If the method proves successful, Google may unroll the offering into blogs, instant messages and wikis.