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Email is an electronic messaging system that has become a popular method for personal and business communication. Messages can include text, images, and formatted documents, and can be sent and received using standardized protocols. Email can be accessed through client software or webmail, and was invented by Ray Tomlinson. Privacy concerns include the ease of interception and the permanence of electronic messages. Email has had a significant impact on traditional mail systems, with a dramatic decline in volume and revenue for postal services.
E-mail, sometimes spelled electronic mail, is simply the short form of “electronic mail,” a system for receiving, sending, and storing electronic messages. It has gained near-universal popularity around the world with the spread of the Internet. In many cases, email has become the preferred method for both personal and business communication.
How it is used
Messages sent by email usually reach the recipient’s account within seconds. They often include more than just text; images and many types of formatted documents are now easily included as file attachments. Plus, you no longer need to be sitting in front of a PC to send or receive an email. A variety of mobile devices, such as tablets and smartphones, allow you to manage correspondence on the go.
protocols
Users receive and send messages using standardized protocols that allow email to travel seamlessly between computers running different types of software and between different types of servers on various networks. Simple Message Transfer Protocol (SMTP) allows for the actual sending and receiving of messages. Other protocols, including Post Office Protocol (POP) and Internet Message Access Protocol (IMAP), allow users to retrieve and archive messages over time.
Software Client
In the beginning, a program called “client software” was needed to handle mail. There are many different email applications available, some of which cost money while others are free; some internet providers even include it in the service. Client software is still used today, but there is another, more flexible method that has become more popular in recent times.
Webmail
In addition to accessing email through client software, webmail is another popular option. Most service providers offer this as an added benefit, where the user can access their mailbox on the Internet, from any computer or other web-connected device. Some email services are specifically designed to use the World Wide Web as their primary interface. These sites, called “portals,” have become very popular, as they usually offer people the ability to open an email account for free, along with access to a search engine, news, calendar, and many other resources from a single point.
History
While there is some degree of uncertainty as to when email was invented, the father of the modern version is generally thought to be an American, Ray Tomlinson. Before Tomlinson, users could message each other, but only when they were connected to the same computer. Even once the computers were networked, messages could not be directed to a particular individual. Tomlinson devised a way to address mail to specific users, and thus has been credited with one of the most important communication inventions in the 20th century.
Tomlinson’s idea was to identify the user’s name and the computer he was on. Consequently, the basic formula for addressing an email was username@usercomputer. This standard hasn’t changed much over the years, other than the fact that the user’s computer is now commonly replaced by the name of a service provider.
Privacy concerns
From a legal standpoint, email is generally treated as a form of private communication, much the same as a phone call or even a handwritten letter; the specifics will vary from country to country, but it is generally illegal to access, read, or publish another person’s messages without permission. It’s important to understand, however, that it’s relatively easy for hackers to intercept email. Additionally, many companies require their employees to sign an agreement granting the employer permission to monitor all messages sent or received to company email addresses.
Another privacy concern is that every electronic message becomes a more or less permanent record of the communication. Selecting a message for deletion will remove it from the visible queue on the user’s account, but a person should never assume that the message is really gone; deleted emails are notoriously easy to resurrect. Even if the sender uses specialized software to completely erase all traces of the message from their computer, copies of the email will likely still exist on the recipient’s side, as well as on many of the servers through which it traveled. Consequently, it is unwise to send sensitive information by this method without carefully considering the possibility that an outside party could obtain it. Since emails are automatically time-stamped, these records are often subpoenaed by courts in order to establish a timeline for a particular chain of events.
To influence
The influence of email cannot be overstated. The United States Postal Service, for example, notes that it handles 485 million pieces of mail a day. By comparison, 39.6 billion emails are sent in the United States every day. In other words, email providers handle more than 81 times the volume of the world’s largest postal system. Perhaps it is equally revealing to consider the extent to which e-mail has affected the use of traditional “snail mail,” as it is often referred to today. The United States Postal Service, along with many other world postal services, experienced a dramatic decline in volume and revenue that began in the second half of the 1990s and has continued steadily since; this is partly because so much personal and business correspondence is now delivered by email.
