E-Mail

E-mail, short for "electronic mail," is a means of transmitting messages virtually instantaneously through the Internet. Created sometime around 1965 (its exact origin is not entirely clear) this technology has helped to dramatically change the way people communicate and do business in the 21st century. E-mail has also helped to spread the flow of unsolicited marketing messages, commonly referred to as Spam.

Shortly after 2008 widely used protocols (such as POP and IMAPI of "E-mail" 's market share has seen a slight decrease in favor of other network based communication such as but not limited to Social Networking (Twitter,Facebook,Myspace etc), Instant Messaging, and some slight increased intrest in Shareflow web based collaboration sites such as Zenbe and Google Wave.

It is difficult to trace the exact origin of the first E-mail messages. In 1965 MIT was one of the first to create software that allowed multiple users to login into a single machine. This technology was known as Compatible Time-Sharing System and allowed users to leave electronic messages for one another. Beyond this the ARPANET helped to greatly increase E-mail usage as it quickly became the favorite application of many on the network. http://www.nethistory.info/History%20of%20the%20Internet/email.html

Ray Tomlinson is credited for the "at" symbol that appears in every e-mail address. He downplays the significance of his discovery, claiming that there were relatively few options that were already on a computer keyboard and made sense. The symbol separates the username from the computer that is being used. Before e-mail addresses with @, two users had to be connected to the same computer in order to communicate.http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9046658/Unsung_innovators_Ray_Tomlinson_who_put_the_sign_in_every_e_mail_address