Yahoo touts new spam protections

Yahoo is using a computing cluster to detect and filter spam

Yahoo is touting a new set of tools which it claims will block spam for its webmail service.

Company anti-spam czar Mark Risher outlined some of the new protections in a blog posting on Tuesday.

"At Yahoo, we take spam seriously," he wrote. "It's a huge challenge and the bad guys are always out there trying to make a buck with their scams, but we're committed to helping keep you safer online."

Among the tools is a computing cluster which uses the company's Hadoop distributed computing system. The cluster comprises thousands of individual systems and is used to detect and filter spam.

Risher also highlighted a number of Yahoo projects with outside firms. Start-up Abaca is working with the company on new behaviour analysis tools to block spam, while email specialist Return Path is involved in a new service designed to remove false positives within spam filters.

Redesigning and improving Yahoo's webmail operation has been one of the main focuses for the company's ongoing rebuilding efforts. Early last year, Jerry Yang, then chief executive, unveiled an updated mail service at the centre of a new web strategy.

In December, the company rolled out further changes to the service when it announced a plan to open Yahoo Mail to third-party developers.