Google Postmaster Tools

Google IP reputation bad

This morning hundreds of delivery folks logged into their Google Postmaster Tools account to see their IP reputation was bad.

Multiple times over the last few weeks folks have posted a screenshot of Google Postmaster tools showing some percentage of mail failing DMARC. They then ask why DMARC is failing. Thanks to how DMARC was designed, they don’t need to ask anyone this, they have all the data they need to work this out themselves.

Google Postmaster is Back

Late last night folks started mentioning they were seeing data trickled into Google Postmaster tools. This morning, some of the domains for some of my clients are showing data.

More Google issues

Not necessarily more but more information about the current Google Postmaster Tools (GPT) outage. I’ve been reliably informed by folks inside Google that they’re aware of the outage and are working on it.

Can I get access to Google Postmaster tools if I’m using an ESP?

The answer is almost certainly yes, but there are definitely cases where it the answer is no.

Gmail survey rough analysis

I closed the Google Postmaster Tools (GPT) survey earlier today. I received 160 responses, mostly from the link published here on the blog and in the M³AAWG Senders group.
I’ll be putting a full analysis together over the next couple weeks, but thought I’d give everyone a quick preview / data dump based on the analysis and graphs SurveyMonkey makes available in their analysis.
Of 160 respondents, 154 are currently using GPT. Some of the folks who said they didn’t have a GPT account also said they logged into it at least once a day, so clearly I have some data cleanup to do.
57% of respondents monitored customer domains. 79% monitored their own domains.
45% of respondents logged in at least once a day to check. Around 40% of respondents check IP and/or domain reputation daily. Around 25% of respondents use the authentication, encryption and delivery errors pages for troubleshooting.
10% said the pages were very easy to understand. 46% said they’re “somewhat easy” to understand.
The improvements suggestions are text based, but SurveyMonkey helpfully puts them together into a word cloud. It’s about what I expected. But I’ll dig into that data.
10% of respondents said they had built tools to scrape the page. 50% said they hadn’t but would like to.
In terms of the problems they have with the 82% of people said they want to be able to create alerts, 60% said they want to add the data to dashboards or reporting tools.

97% of respondents who currently have a Google Postmater Tools account said they are interested in an API for the data. I’m sure the 4 who aren’t interested won’t care if there is one.
47% of respondents said if there was an API they’d have tools using it by the end of 2017. 73% said they’d have tools built by end of Q1 2018.
33% of respondents send more than 10 million emails per day.
75% of respondents work for private companies.
70% of respondents work for ESPs. 10% work for retailers or brands sending through their own infrastructure.
That’s my initial pass through the data. I’ll put together something a bit more coherent and some more useful analysis in the coming week and publish it. I am already seeing some interesting correlations I can do to get useful info out.
Thank you to everyone who participated! This is interesting data that I will be passing along to Google. Rough mental calculation indicates that respondents are responsible for multiple billions of emails a day.
Thanks!

Google Postmaster Tools: Last Chance!

I’ll be closing down the Google Postmaster Tools survey Oct 31. If you’ve not had a chance to answer the questions yet, you have through tomorrow.
This data will be shared here. The ulterior motive is to convince Google to make an API available soon due to popular demand.

Tell us about how you use Gmail Postmaster Tools

One of the things I hear frequently is that folks really want access to Google Postmaster Tools through an API. I’ve also heard some suggestions that we should start a petition. I thought a better idea was to put together a survey showing how people are using GPT and how high the demand is for an API.
They’re a data company, let’s give them data.

I’ve put together a survey looking at how people are using GPT. It’s 4 pages and average time to take the survey is around 7 minutes. Please give us your feedback on GPT usage.
I’m planning on leaving the survey open through the first week in November. Then I’ll pull data together and share here and with Google.

Google Postmaster bad IP reputation

There are widespread reports this morning (9/11/17) that Google postmaster tools is showing bad IP reputation for IPs starting on 9/9. This issue is affecting just about everyone. Looking through my client’s postmaster pages, I’m seeing red for IP reputation on every client. Even my clients with generally good reputation are seeing bad reputation since 9/9.

This looks like a reporting or a display error on the part of Google. Many people who are reporting the bad IP reputation are not seeing any significant change in Gmail deliverability.
Looking through client data it appears that domain reputation reporting stopped on 9/8. I am seeing FBL reports for 9/9 and 9/10, for some but not all clients.
My current read on the situation is that something broke internally with the Gmail postmaster reporting. This does not currently appear to be affecting delivery of mail. (If anyone sees differently, drop me an email or tweet me @wise_laura).
I know folks are making sure Google knows. I know that some Gmail folks were directly notified and another Google person is active on Mailop. And we have confirmation that they are aware and are working on fixing it. I will let you know if I hear of a fix timeline.
EDIT: It’s been fixed. Google even fixed the older data. Same client, screenshot from this morning.

Google Postmaster Tools

Earlier this month Google announced a new set of tools for senders at their Postmaster Tools site. To get into the site you need to login to Google, but they also have a handy support page that doesn’t require a login for folks who want to see what the page is about.
We did register, but don’t send enough mail to get any data back from Google. However, the nice folks at SendGrid were kind enough to share their experiences with me and show me what the site looked like with real data, when I spoke at their recent customer meeting.
Who can register?
Anyone can register for Google Postmaster tools. All you need is the domain authenticated by DKIM (the d= value) or by SPF (the Return Path value).
Who can see data?
Google is only sharing data with trusted domains and only if a minimum volume is sent from those domains. They don’t describe what a trusted domain is, but I expect the criteria include a domain with some history (no brand new domains) and a reasonable track record (some or all of the mail is good).
For ESPs who want to monitor all the mail they send, every mail needs to be signed with a common d= domain. Individual customers that want their own d= can do so. These customers can register for their own access to just their mail.
ESPs that want to do this need to sign with the common key first, and then with the customer’s more selective key.
How does it work?
Google collects data from DKIM and/or SPF authenticated mail, aggregates it and presents it to a Google user that has authenticated the domain.
How do I authenticate?