Reader Dean Collins posted a comment on my recent entry about why email marketers love the "unsubscribe button." He wonders if perhaps too much is being made of the unsubscribe button, and asks why marketers view it as an improvement over an unsubscribe link in a message. Thanks for your comment, Dean. A few thoughts:

• The unsub button is always visible and is the same for every mailing, regardless of sender -- no more searching around to find the link at the bottom of the message.
• The unsub action will be a single click -- much easier than the clicking to open a Web page, confirming you really want to unsubscribe and then hitting submit. Some opt-outs are even more complex than this.
• The unsub button will only appear if the sender has a good reputation. ISPs will not endorse the old spammer trick of using an opt-out request to confirm the existence of a "live body" on the other end -- only authenticated senders with good reputations will be able to have this link activated. For end users, this means that the link will always work.