e-mail

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**Definition**

 * E-mail** or email is short for electronic mail. E-mail is a method of asynchronous communication, allowing users to compose, send, and receive messages over the Internet.

**History**
E-mail existed before the Internet. In 1965, e-mail was a way for those using a time-sharing mainframe computer to communicate amongst one another. E-mail then became networked where e-mails could be sent to different users between different computers. The evolution of e-mail continued to evolve with the help of ARPANET as e-mail became more popular. Individuals that were not on ARPANET began to demand e-mail as they realized the advantages e-mail had to offer.

Early email was a small advance on what we know today as a file directory - it just put another message into another users directory in spot where they could see it when they logged on. It was just like leaving a note on someones desk.

The first email system was probably MAILBOX, used at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 1965.

**Advantages**

 * increased communication speed (takes seconds to reach its destination)
 * sending one message to multiple recipients
 * forwarding the same message to multiple receipients so one doesn't have to type the message all over again
 * feedback almost instantly upon receiving an e-mail
 * communicating across continent
 * supports text, WYSIWYG interfaces, graphical images, program and other file attachment
 * don't have to pay postage fees (doesn't require postage stamps)
 * can send a message from anywhere(home, work, school) unlike having to go to the post office/mailbox
 * easy to manage (save or delete messages)

**Disadvantages**

 * spamming
 * phishing
 * e-mail worms
 * viruses
 * privacy problems
 * suceptability to human and machine errors
 * the lack of intonation, facial expressions, body signals, etc. can lead to misinterpretation of the e-mail message
 * like regular mail, we cannot always know whether or not the person we sent the e-mail to has received it and read it

**Elements of an E-mail**

 * header
 * to
 * from
 * Cc
 * Bcc
 * subject
 * date
 * body

Elements of an E-mail Address

 * @ sign in the middle of all e-mail address
 * differentiates between the user name and the domain name
 * domain name to the right of the @ sign
 * different domain names assigned to different people, countries and organizations
 * top level domains like .com, .org, .info, or country codes
 * they can be custom domain names if individuals buy their own
 * sub-level domains
 * user name to the left of the @ sign
 * indicates the owner of the e-mail address
 * you can usually create your own user name

E-mail Providers
Gmail has just started its instant messaging a week ago, so instead of emailing back and fourth during the same time periods you can chat online through your web mail. It’s fast, fun and enjoyable (What is Gmail?).
 * [|hotmail.com] Hotmail offers users in Canada, US, UK, Spain and Australia 250 MB of free storage. However users in other countries get only 2 MB of storage. Hotmail was developed in 1995, by Jack Smith and Sabeer Bhatia. Jack had a vision of checking email on the Web from any ordinary computer which could be located anywhere around the world. By December 1997, there were 8.5 million users of Hotmail. By February 1999, the number of users grew to 30 million. And the number has increased since ( Hotmail. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia).
 * [|Gmail] Gmail is the latest free web mail from Google. It has over 2,600 megabytes of storage. It is extremely easy to find and search through your past files, documents and pictures. The great thing about Gmail is that there are no pop-ups unlike other web mails. There is however text about relevant information that is contained in small text ads. So this actually becomes very beneficial to the user unlike pervious annoying and interfering messages that pop up in other web mails sent and received.
 * [|Yahoo!]
 * [|mail.com]

Related
Instant messaging Privacy invasion spam

Work Cited
__ Hotmail. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia__. Available from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hotmail [accessed at 24 February 2006].

"E-mail." __Wikipedia__. 24 Feb. 2006 .

Griffiths, Richard. "Chapter Three: History of Electronic Mail." __Leiden University__. 24 Feb. 2006 .

Peters, Ian.History of Email. 24 Feb. 2006 < [|http://www.nethistory.info/History%20of%20the%20Internet/email.html] >

__What is Gmail?__. Available at http://mail.google.com/mail/help/about.html [accessed from 24 February 2006].

Image Source:

"E-mail." __Wikipedia__. 24 Feb. 2006 .