Electronic mail, often abbreviated as email or e-mail, is a method of exchanging digital messages, designed primarily for human use. E-mail systems are based on a store-and-forward model in which e-mail computer server systems accept, forward, deliver and store messages on behalf of users, who only need to connect to the e-mail infrastructure, typically an e-mail server, with a network-enabled device (e.g., a personal computer) for the duration of message submission or retrieval. Rarely is e-mail transmitted directly from one user's device to another's.
An electronic mail message consists of two components, the message header, and the message body, which is the email's content. The message header contains control information, including, minimally, an originator's email address and one or more recipient addresses. Usually additional information is added, such as a subject header field.
Originally a text-only communications medium, email is extended to carry multi-media content attachments, which were standardized in with RFC 2045 through RFC 2049, collectively called, Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions (MIME).
The foundation for today's global Internet e-mail service was created in the early ARPANET and standards for encoding of messages were proposed as early as, for example, in 1973 (RFC 561). An e-mail sent in the early 1970s looked very similar to one sent on the Internet today. Conversion from the ARPANET to the Internet in the early 1980s produced the core of the current service.
Network-based email was initially exchanged on the ARPANET in extensions to the File Transfer Protocol (FTP), but is today carried by the Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP), first published as Internet Standard 10 (RFC 821) in 1982. In the process of transporting email messages between systems, SMTP communicates delivery parameters using a message envelope separately from the message (headers and body) itself.
For more information about E-mail, read the full article at
Wikipedia.
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News tagged with email
Science not faked, but not pretty
Dec 12, 2009 |
3.1 / 5 (50) |
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(AP) -- E-mails stolen from climate scientists show they stonewalled skeptics and discussed hiding data - but the messages don't support claims that the science of global warming was faked, according to an ...
Google CEO joins Twitter
Dec 07, 2009 |
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Google chief executive Eric Schmidt, who took some flak earlier this year for calling Twitter a "poor man's email system," has joined the hot micro-blogging service.
Google buys online collaboration startup
Dec 05, 2009 |
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Online collaboration startup AppJet said that Google is buying the San Francisco firm and merging its technology with an innovation Wave communication platform the Internet giant is creating.
United Nations to probe climate e-mail leak
Dec 04, 2009 |
3.1 / 5 (9) |
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(AP) -- The United Nations will conduct its own investigation into e-mails leaked from a leading British climate science center in addition to the probe by the University of East Anglia, a senior U.N. climate ...
End of the e-mail era? I'm not buying it
Nov 19, 2009 |
5 / 5 (2) |
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I don't know about you, but I'm overwhelmed by e-mail. Yes, I know. The Wall Street Journal has declared that e-mail's reign is over. It's supposedly being replaced by technologies such as instant messaging, social networking ...
Regret that email? Gmail gives users chance to call it back
Mar 20, 2009 |
2.8 / 5 (9) |
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Just about everybody has sent an email, noticed a mistake as they hit the "send" button and wanted to call it back.
Google glitch disrupts search engine, e-mail
May 14, 2009 |
2.5 / 5 (2) |
2
(AP) -- Millions of people were cut off from Google Inc.'s search engine, e-mail and other online services Thursday, sparking a flurry of frustrated venting that served as a reminder of society's growing ...
BlackBerry Storm 2 coming soon (w/ Video)
Electronics / Consumer & Gadgets
Oct 20, 2009 |
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1
(PhysOrg.com) -- RIM are soon to release their updated BlackBerry, the Storm 2 smart phone, with a more streamlined design and touch-sensitive buttons instead of the hardware buttons of the first version.
Web-based e-mail features come to desktop software
Nov 11, 2009 |
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(AP) -- E-mail has taken a full circle. Over the years, Web-based e-mail services have gotten much better, sporting many features once available only with the e-mail programs that reside on the computer desktop.
Computer scientists work to strengthen online security
Technology / Computer Sciences
Nov 09, 2009 |
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1
If you forget your password when logging into an e-mail or online shopping Web site, the site will likely ask you a security question: What is your mother's maiden name? Where were you born?
Google wooing Microsoft business customers
Oct 19, 2009 |
1 / 5 (1) |
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Google on Monday ramped up a campaign to convert businesses worldwide into users of email, calendar, document and other software programs it offers online as services on the Internet.
Gmail tool catches misdirected messages
Oct 13, 2009 |
5 / 5 (1) |
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Google on Tuesday added an embarrassment-avoidance tool that catches misdirected Gmail messages before they are fired off by users of the free Web-based email service.
Hackers expose slew of Hotmail acount passwords
Oct 05, 2009 |
1 / 5 (1) |
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Microsoft on Monday blocked access to thousands of Hotmail accounts in response to hackers plundering password information and posting it online.
IBM undercuts Google with discount e-mail service
Oct 02, 2009 |
4 / 5 (1) |
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(AP) -- IBM Corp. is trying to stymie Google Inc.'s expansion into the business software market.
Next version of Microsoft Office coming in 2010
Apr 15, 2009 |
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(AP) -- Microsoft Corp.'s next version of its Office desktop programs will reach consumers next year, though not likely in conjunction with the Windows 7 operating system.
