E-mail

Electronic mail, abbreviated e-mail or email, is a method of composing, sending, and receiving messages over electronic communication systems. The term e-mail applies both to the Internet e-mail system based on the Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) and to workgroup collaboration systems allowing users within one company or organization to send messages to each other. Often workgroup collaboration systems natively use non-standard protocols but have some form of gateway to allow them to send and receive internet e-mail. Some organizations may use the internet protocols for internal e-mail service.

Origins of e-mail

Despite common belief, e-mail actually predates the Internet; in fact, existing e-mail systems were a crucial tool in creating the Internet.

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E-mail started in 1965 as a way for multiple users of a time-sharing mainframe computer to communicate. Although the exact history is murky, among the first systems to have such a facility were SDC's Q32 and MIT's CTSS.

Related Topics:
1965 - Time-sharing - Mainframe computer - SDC - Q32 - MIT - CTSS

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E-mail was quickly extended to become network e-mail, allowing users to pass messages between different computers. The early history of network e-mail is also murky; the AUTODIN system may have been the first allowing electronic text messages to be transferred between users on different computers in 1966, but it is possible the SAGE system had something similar some time before.

Related Topics:
AUTODIN - 1966 - SAGE

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The ARPANET computer network made a large contribution to the evolution of e-mail. There is one report http://www.multicians.org/thvv/mail-history.html which indicates experimental inter-system e-mail transfers on it shortly after its creation, in 1969. Ray Tomlinson initiated the use of the @ sign to separate the names of the user and their machine in 1971 http://openmap.bbn.com/~tomlinso/ray/firstemailframe.html. The common report that he "invented" e-mail is an exaggeration, although his early e-mail programs SNDMSG and READMAIL were very important. The first message sent by Ray Tomlinson is not preserved; it was "a message announcing the availability of network email"http://openmap.bbn.com/~tomlinso/ray/firstemailframe.html. The ARPANET significantly increased the popularity of e-mail, and it became the killer app of the ARPANET.

Related Topics:
ARPANET - Computer network - 1969 - Ray Tomlinson - @ sign - 1971 - SNDMSG - READMAIL - Killer app

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