James O’Brien posted his notes from day 1 of the Authentication and Online Summit on his blog. This is what he says:

The Big News is the coming launch of the unsubscribe button in the new Windows Live Hotmail User Interface. For Microsoft to recognize unsubscribe as a powerful way to give consumers more control over their inbox is a giant step forward for the industry. The button will appear if a user has flagged an email sender as “known”. There are three classifications in the new UI topped by a color-coded bar.

Known Sender- white bar

• User added sender to personal “safelist” or “contacts:
• Images & links enabled
• Allows unsubscribe option

Unknown Sender – yellow bar

• Sender not in user safelist or contacts
• User can choose: “junk”, “delete” or “mark as safe” or “unsafe”

Potentially Dangerous- red bar

• Could be phishing or sender ID failure (spoofed)
• User options same as unknown sender

There are some great benefits for marketers that go out of their way to achieve “known sender” status. It’s a great example of how following best practices can reward marketers. And how important it is to understand the sometimes nuanced requirements of compliance needed for greater deliverability.