bimi
It’s time for your periodic BIMI adoption status update. A quick overview of what this is all about: BIMI is a standard being adopted by multiple internet services providers (ISPs) to allow the display of a sender’s logo along side email messages, when displayed on a mobile device or in a webmail client. Some ISPs and mail clients have had a sender logo display function for a while now (one example is Gravatar), but BIMI is an attempt to standardize and regulate this mechanism across the email ecosystem.Adoption by senders seems a bit slow; but the spec only went public in 2019, which isn’t that long ago. Also, it suffers a bit from the “chicken and egg” problem — it’s hard to convince senders to adopt the standard if receivers haven’t adopted support for the standard. But now with two of the top three B2C mailbox providers (Yahoo and Gmail) having BIMI support, I’m…
Looking for guidance on how to create your BIMI logo file? Valimail has a pretty good guide that explains the requirements and they also explain what to keep in mind when creating your BIMI graphic SVG file. Starting with:SquareSVG Tiny Portable/Secure formatSolid backgroundPublished via HTTPSSVG meaning a Scalable Vector Graphics file, and particular type of SVG called SVG Tiny Portable/Secure (SVG P/S). The image has to truly be a vector graphic; the overall SVG spec does allow you to embed a bitmap in a file but this isn’t allowed for SVG P/S or BIMI usage.The Valimail guide goes on to explain how to manually edit the SVG file to convert it to the SVG P/S spec. But if you don’t feel like editing XML files by hand, download this converter application that the BIMI (AuthIndicators) Working Group has shared here. I’ve used the Macintosh version and it works fine. (You…
I’ve got just enough time for a quick post today, to share with you this very useful DMARC Dictionary put together by the fine folks at dmarcian. Check it out! And since that would make for a very short blog post, here’s four bonus online resources that you might also want to bookmark, if you didn’t already know about them:The ISP Information page from Laura Atkins and Steve Atkins over at Word to the Wise, where they’ve collected info on which ISPs offer ISP Feedback Loops (FBLs), which ones have Postmaster information pages, help/support ticketing systems, etc.My new friends at Kickbox (disclaimer: they are my employer) have put together this great “Developer’s Guide to Email” website that you are going to find quite useful if you are looking to learn more about email technology or study how it all comes together.Postmark’s SMTP Field Manual allows you to look up example bounce messages…
Timely. Here is “Everything you need to know about BIMI and validated mark certificates, how they increase brand trust, and which companies have adopted them,” courtesy of World Trademark Review. This analysis, authored by Jeremy Speres, partner at Spoor & Fisher, provides great detail into BIMI/VMC state and status and what senders need to know to be able to move forward with their own BIMI plans. I learned a lot from reading this and I think you will, too![ H/T: Brian Westnedge from Red Sift ]
It’s been a while since I’ve posted a BIMI status update, and things are changing! Things are standardizing! Things are getting good. So, let’s get right to it…