As senders, we should be the first to care about sending valuable, relevant emails to our contacts. Ultimately, email's efficiency as a communications channel depends on our recipients' overall inbox experience. More unwanted emails mean more competition and less likelihood of having our messages read.

But that doesn't stop us from worrying when mailbox providers make changes to the way they handle unsolicited messages, like the ones announced earlier this month by Gmail and Yahoo.

What do these changes really mean? How are they going to impact your email program? And most importantly, what do you need to do to stay on the right side of the email law? We've got all the answers and some recommendations in this post.