A few of our customers have been asking us about this bit of news from ReturnPath: AOL Changes Authentication and Whitelist Standards.

According to George Bilbrey, AOL, Gmail, and Yahoo have implemented DKIM email authentication.

For those of you who don’t know, authentication is a way to prevent email forgeries, and it can improve your deliverability. The AOTA says Authentication has hit its “tipping point.”

Since 2004, when email authentication started to really pick up steam, ISPs have been testing (and changing) their support for authentication. Some use one method for inbound, and another for outbound. Some support all methods of authentication. Some have abandoned it, or are in limbo. It can be confusing.

So we compiled a chart of which ISPs are using which authentication methods over here.

Of course, we’ve also made authentication “MailChimp Easy:” Our customers can authenticate their email campaigns with one simple click, and we cover all the major authentication standards (DKIM, Domain Keys, SenderID, and SPF).