The evolution of spam (not the luncheon meat)

Pork, salt, water, sugar, and sodium hydrate. Those are the general ingredients for Hawaii’s favorite meat substitute. Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on your perspective) that’s not the spam we’re talking about here.

Since the opportunities on the Internet started becoming clear a decade or two ago, the rise of spam as a substitute for real content, as a unsolicited solicitation tool, and as a general annoyance with potential threats has forced many to avoid certain aspects of the internet that would normally be higher quality. Look at email. Twitter. Search engines. All of these things and thousands of other positive components of the internet experience have been tainted by the need to fight the onslaught of spam.

This comprehensive graphic by our friends at Marketo takes us through the years and different variations of spam that have made their way into many of our lives. As countermeasures improve, spammers improve as well. Will the madness ever end?

Probably not. Click to enlarge.