Does Gmail’s Spam Filter Still Work?

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I have putting off writing this blog post for one reason or another (I’m not really sure to be perfectly honest with you) but something today the question has popped into my head once again: Does Gmail’s spam filter still work?

I went from getting one or two spam messages in my Inbox a month to my current state of several a day. If that wasn’t aggravating enough, legitimate email such PayPal notifications concerning automatic subscription withdrawals or daily notifications for the Road Crew web comic are going to the Spam folder, while emails from someone called ‘Pharmaceutical Sales Rep’ are getting through.

I would probably understand the Pharmaceutical Sales Rep message getting through if the subject line didn’t include “gets 77% off for all orders today” and SEVEN previous messages with the phrase “gets 77% off for all orders today” hadn’t just been sent straight to Spam.

Catching every piece of spam is tough, as is avoiding false positives, but both are happening at an ever increasing rate and I have to wonder if Google’s preoccupation with rolling out new things such as Wave, Voice and Buzz aren’t causing them to neglect perfecting their spam filter.

In the meantime, I just have to keep scrolling through offers for ED meds, Russian girls who want to meet me, overseas businessmen who have a totally legal proposition for me, hot Forex tips, offers on Acai Berry and Vertu (whatever in the hell that is) and of course, Master’s Degrees I can get (overnight) just to make sure that I don’t miss an email from PayPal telling me there is a problem with my account and my subscription has been automatically cancelled. Again.