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Goodmail Systems is expected to announce Thursday its CertifiedEmail system has been adopted by Comcast, Cox Communications, Time Warner Cable's Road Runner and Verizon.

As a result, six major e-mail inbox providers now support CertifiedEmail, including its original adopters AOL and Yahoo.

The biggest major holdout is now Microsoft.

"If you look at the average B-to-C marketer's list we now have 65%," said David Atlas, Goodmail's vice president of marketing. "Obviously, Microsoft would bring it up to 85%, but we've got critical mass here."

Introduced in 2006, CertifiedEmail is a scheme under which senders undergo an accreditation process. Once certified as non-spammers by Goodmail, senders' messages arrive in users' inboxes with images and links intact and certified as safe by a blue-ribbon icon for a small fee.

Though many mailers have been taking a wait-and-see approach to Goodmail, this latest announcement will most certainly make them take notice.

Internet service providers are increasingly shutting off images and links by default on incoming e-mail to combat phishing, viruses and malware spread by malicious spammers. Goodmail's CertifiedEmail program is one way for mailers to ensure their e-mail arrives intact.

Atlas added that Goodmail expects in the fourth quarter of this year to launch an ad campaign to run through 2008 mainly online aimed at raising consumer awareness of the CertifiedEmail icon.

He added the goal is to get consumers thinking of CertifiedEmail icons similarly to the way they do FedEx packages.

"People treat FedEx packages differently," he said. "What CertifiedEmail does is say: 'Here is the e-mail you requested. This is important.'"