Electronic mail: What is Electronic mail (Email)?

Email is the abbreviation of Electronic Mail, however, it is sometime written e-mail; It is a method of sending and receiving messages (“mail”) between people using electronic devices.

In this article, we are going to look at:

1. Brief history of email.
2. Why using email?
3. Disadvantages of email.
4. Free email service providers.

Brief History of email:

Email (or Electronic Mail) was invented by Ray Tomlinson in early 1960s  and by the mid-1970s had taken the form now recognized as email. Email rely on computer networks, there must be connection between computer sending and the one receiving the message, which today is primarily known as the Internet.

During the early stage of email development, systems required the author and the recipient to both be online at the same time, this is known as Instant Messaging. However, today’s email systems are based on a store-and-forward model. Emails are stored in a central locations known as mail servers (Server: a computer in a network that serves requests from other computers). The mail servers accept, forward, deliver, and store messages. In this case, neither the sender nor receiver are required to be online simultaneously.

Therefore, as soon as one connects to the internet, he will receive email sent to him automatically if he had configure that using email clients, such Microsoft Outlook, or he can log in to his email and read.

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Why Using email (Electronic Mail)?

Why using email? This question might come to your mind. However, there are many reasons for using email. Here, I am going to mention 10 reasons why you should start using email (electronic mail), namely:

1. Stay Organised: Email helps you to organize valuable messages for easy access in future. You can create “label” and “folders” and name them according to what you want, such as “Pension” folder which holds your pension messages, “News” folder that holds your favorite news you subscribed to, and so on.
2. Reliable: Email messages are reliable to organisations and users, that is why most companies, government agencies and social networks always request email from users before they have access to their services. It is important to know that phone SMS (Short Message Service) are not suitable in some cases, because most Network Service Providers clear messages that are not delivered within 24 – 48 hours, this action leads to lost of vital information for both the sender and the receiver. To avoid this, many organisations prefer email over SMS, because email always remain in user’s inbox.
3. Business Promotion: Now a days, many businesses succeed as a result of email marketing. Almost all websites now integrate email list into their sites, in which they receive emails from their new customers, with that, they (business owners) send messages to the customers constantly in order to attract more sells. So, are you there?
4. One-To-Many Communication: Email is good for sharing messages to many people at once with one click. You can send to hundreds of users, depending on the email provider’s setting.
5. Free of Charge: Email service is 100% free. No charges for serving you. You are only required to sign in with valid details, and you must read and agree with the Terms of Service and Privacy Policy of the email provider.
6. Permanent: One can keep records of messages and replies, including details of when a message was received.
7. Attachment:  With email you can attach files, such as image, video, document, and other media files. You can also attach a folder.
8. Fast: Sending email is fast, it can be delivered within a few seconds.
9. Accessibility: Emails are accessible from any location in the world as far as you have internet connection.
10. Message Filter: One can choose messages he wants to receive, and exclude others base on a filter he sets. He can block a particular address from sending him messages.

Disadvantages of Electronic Mail (Email):

Although, email has many advantages, however, there are some disadvantages of email, I will make you aware of them, so that you will take precautions, here are some of its disadvantages:

1. Internet Connection: There must be internet connection before you can access your mail.
2. Spam: This is an irrelevant or unsolicited messages sent over the Internet, typically to a large number of users, it can be for advertising, phishing, spreading malware, etc. Therefore, you must be caution in opening emails that appear in your spam folder.
3. Virus: Virus are spread via emails, especially, through attachments. However, some email service providers like gmail give tool for scanning attachment. So, you should always scan message before and after you download it.
4. No guarantee that the user will read your email. Most email are deleted before they are read due to many reasons, such as laziness or large number of email received.
5. Phishing: This is the way of scamming one through sending false message about a company or otherwise in order to steal his information for many purposes.

Free Email Service Providers:

There are many free email service providers, but I am going to recommend the following because of their reliability, popularity or bunch of other services accessible through that single email account. These free email providers include:

1. Gmail: This is the most widely used email, it is one of the google services. With one single account you are eligible for many of their services, like youtube channel, google plus, google drive, etc. See all services provided by google with just single email account.
2. Yahoo mail: This is also one of the must popular email provider, see all their services.
3. Zoho mail.
4. Inbox.com.
5. Outlook.com (hotmail).
6. Mail.com
7. GMX mail.
8. Fastmail.
9. Hushmail.
10. Shortmail.

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