The idea of behavioral data affecting email sender reputation first surfaced three years ago, when AOL announced that dormant addresses would factor into sender reputation. AOL explained at the time that spammers create significant numbers of fake email addresses for the sole purpose of driving down complaint percentage rates. Even so, they said that this metric should never affect legitimate emailers who have genuine (human) email recipients.

The next phase of this concept was presented by Microsoft at the Authentication and Online Trust Alliance Conference in 2008 (PDF). Microsoft’s Anti-Spam General Manager indicated that in the future they would prefer to use recipient behavioral metrics like open-rates in addition to their other spam-related metrics to determine sender reputation. While the idea was still hypothetical at the time, the mere fact that they made these statements to a room full of email senders was worth noting.

Now, we have confirmation from Yahoo! that some of these same metrics that AOL and Microsoft have considered are now implemented into Yahoo!’s anti-spam reputation processes. Of course, we’ll never know exactly what percentage of non-openers or other behavioral factors will impact deliverability, but we can say with certainty that dormant addresses and inactive users are now playing a role in determining your Yahoo! inbox success.

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Our respected colleague David Daniels published a nifty little report on deliverability last week at JupiterResearch, and there are a few little tidbits that bear repeating for the responsible masses.

Daniels reiterates the continued danger lurking behind “dormant” email masses, which are defined as email addresses that have been abandoned by their owner. As the nickname implies, dormant addresses look like they are in permanent hibernation, but in reality they have the potential to erupt, and not in a good way.

Some of these inactive subscribers can be linked to dormant accounts, and these dormant accounts are increasingly being used by ISPs to create honey pots or spam traps. Marketers hitting too many dormant accounts could have the delivery disposition of their messages changed (e.g., completely blocked, delivered to the bulk folder).

You heard the man — it’s time to dig into your email response data and separate those loved ones who simply aren’t answering the door from those who packed up and moved altogether. According to the report, this dormant segment probably represents a big chunk of your total subscriber list, so don’t be surprised if your viable list size decreases significantly. We know from experience that it’s more important to make every send count than to simply send more!