Email: Difference between revisions

'''Electronic mail''' (usually shortened to '''email'''; alternatively hyphenated '''e-mail''') is a method of transmitting and receiving [[Digital media|digital messages]] using [[electronics|electronic]] devices over a [[computer network]]. It was conceived in the late–20th century as the digital version of, or counterpart to, [[mail]] (hence ''[[wikt:e-#Etymology 2|e-]] + mail''). Email is a ubiquitous and very widely used communication medium; in current use, an [[email address]] is often treated as a basic and necessary part of many processes in business, commerce, government, education, entertainment, and other spheres of daily life in most countries.

 

* '''''email''''' is now the common form, and recommended by [[style guide]]s.<ref name="cmos"/><ref>{{cite web|url=https://styleguide.yahoo.com/word-list/e|title=Yahoo style guide|publisher=Styleguide.yahoo.com|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130509154006/https://styleguide.yahoo.com/word-list/e|archive-date=May 9, 2013|access-date=2014-01-09}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/03/18/ap-removes-hyphen-from-em_n_837833.html|title=AP Removes Hyphen From 'Email' In Style Guide|website=[[Huffington Post]]|location=New York City|date=March 18, 2011|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150512055628/https://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/03/18/ap-removes-hyphen-from-em_n_837833.html |archive-date=May 12, 2015}}</ref> It is the form required by [[IETF]] [[Request for Comments|Requests for Comments]] (RFC) and working groups.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc-style-guide/terms-online.txt|publisher=IETF|title=RFC Editor Terms List|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131228152111/https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc-style-guide/terms-online.txt|archive-date=2013-12-28}} This is suggested by the [https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc-style-guide/rfc-style-manual-08.txt RFC Document Style Guide]  {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150424002009/https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc-style-guide/rfc-style-manual-08.txt |date=2015-04-24 }}</ref>  This spelling also appears in most dictionaries.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.askoxford.com/asktheexperts/faq/aboutspelling/email | title=What is the correct way to spell 'e' words such as 'email', 'ecommerce', 'egovernment'? | publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] | work=FAQ | access-date=4 September 2009 | author=AskOxford Language Query team | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080701194047/https://www.askoxford.com/asktheexperts/faq/aboutspelling/email?view=uk | quote=We recommend email, this is the common form | url-status=dead | archive-date=July 1, 2008}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://dictionary.reference.com/browse/email |title=Reference.com |publisher=Dictionary.reference.com |access-date=2014-01-09 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131216094405/https://dictionary.reference.com/browse/email |archive-date=2013-12-16 }}</ref><ref name="cmos"/><ref>{{cite web |title=''"RFC Style Guide"'', Table of decisions on consistent use in RFC |url=https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc-style-guide/terms-online.txt |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131228152111/https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc-style-guide/terms-online.txt |archive-date=2013-12-28 |access-date=2014-01-09}}</ref>

* '''''EMAIL''''' was used by [[CompuServe]] starting in April 1981, which popularized the term.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Did V.A. Shiva Ayyadurai Invent Email? |website= SIGCIS |author1=thaigh |date=2015 |url=https://www.sigcis.org/ayyadurai |access-date=2020-09-05 |archive-date=April 17, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220417130400/https://www.sigcis.org/Ayyadurai |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Masnick |first=Mike |title=Laying Out All The Evidence: Shiva Ayyadurai Did Not Invent Email |url=https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20190518/23370542236/laying-out-all-evidence-shiva-ayyadurai-did-not-invent-email.shtml |access-date=2020-09-05 |website=Techdirt. |date=May 22, 2019 |archive-date=January 27, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220127173452/https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20190518/23370542236/laying-out-all-evidence-shiva-ayyadurai-did-not-invent-email.shtml |url-status=live }}</ref>

  |  publisher = [[Internet Engineering Task Force|IETF]]  

* Alice's computer may run its own MTA, so avoiding the transfer at step 1.  

Email pre-dates [[instant messaging]], and transmission favors reliability over speed, in order to be able to cope with unreliable network links and busy servers (more common in the early days of the Internet). Reasons for slower delivery include:<ref name="luxsci">[https://luxsci.com/blog/why-email-is-not-instantaneous-and-not-supposed-to-be.html Why Email is Not Instantaneous — and Not Supposed to Be]</ref>

| section = 2.3.1  

| section = 4.1  

  |    section = 4.5.

  |    section = 4.2.2.  

[[Email marketing]] via "[[opt-in email|opt-in]]" is often successfully used to send special sales offerings and new product information.<ref>{{cite journal | last1 = Martin | first1 = Brett A. S. | last2 = Van Durme | first2 = Joel | last3 = Raulas | first3 = Mika | last4 = Merisavo | first4 = Marko | year = 2003 | title = E-mail Marketing: Exploratory Insights from Finland | url = https://www.basmartin.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/Martin-et-al-2003.pdf | journal = Journal of Advertising Research | volume = 43 | issue = 3 | pages = 293–300 | doi = 10.1017/s0021849903030265 | url-status = live | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20121021150626/https://www.basmartin.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/Martin-et-al-2003.pdf | archive-date = 2012-10-21 | issn=0021-8499}}</ref> Depending on the recipient's culture,<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.computerworld.com/article/2467778/endpoint-security/spam-culture--part-1--china.html|title=Spam culture, part 1: China|first=Amir|last=Lev|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161110174233/https://www.computerworld.com/article/2467778/endpoint-security/spam-culture--part-1--china.html|archive-date=2016-11-10|date=2009-10-02}}</ref> email sent without permission&mdash;such as an "opt-in"&mdash;is likely to be viewed as unwelcome "[[email spam]]".

Email "spam" is unsolicited bulk email. The low cost of sending such email meant that, by 2003, up to 30% of total email traffic was spam,<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.sitepronews.com/2015/05/04/seeing-spam-how-to-take-care-of-your-google-analytics-data/|title=Seeing Spam? How To Take Care of Your Google Analytics Data|website=sitepronews.com|access-date=5 September 2017|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171107005139/https://www.sitepronews.com/2015/05/04/seeing-spam-how-to-take-care-of-your-google-analytics-data/|archive-date=7 November 2017|date=2015-05-04}}</ref><ref>Rich Kawanagh. The top ten email spam list of 2005. ITVibe news, 2006, January 02, [https://itvibe.com/news/3837/ ITvibe.com] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080720071624/https://itvibe.com/news/3837/ |date=2008-07-20 }}</ref><ref>How Microsoft is losing the war on spam [https://dir.salon.com/story/tech/feature/2005/01/19/microsoft_spam/index.html Salon.com] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080629050141/https://dir.salon.com/story/tech/feature/2005/01/19/microsoft_spam/index.html |date=2008-06-29 }}</ref> and was threatening the usefulness of email as a practical tool. The US [[CAN-SPAM Act of 2003]] and similar laws elsewhere<ref>Spam Bill 2003 ([https://www.aph.gov.au/library/pubs/bd/2003-04/04bd045.pdf PDF] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060911062331/https://www.aph.gov.au/library/pubs/bd/2003-04/04bd045.pdf |date=2006-09-11 }})</ref> had some impact, and a number of effective [[anti-spam techniques (email)|anti-spam techniques]] now largely mitigate the impact of spam by filtering or rejecting it for most users,<ref>[https://www.wired.com/2015/07/google-says-ai-catches-99-9-percent-gmail-spam/ "Google Says Its AI Catches 99.9 Percent of Gmail Spam"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160916054313/https://www.wired.com/2015/07/google-says-ai-catches-99-9-percent-gmail-spam/ |date=2016-09-16 }}, Cade Metz, July 09 2015, wired.com</ref> but the volume sent is still very high&mdash;and increasingly consists not of advertisements for products, but malicious content or links.<ref>[https://securelist.com/analysis/quarterly-spam-reports/74682/spam-and-phishing-in-q1-2016/ "Spam and phishing in Q1 2016"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160809154745/https://securelist.com/analysis/quarterly-spam-reports/74682/spam-and-phishing-in-q1-2016/ |date=2016-08-09 }},  May 12, 2016, securelist.com</ref> In September 2017, for example, the proportion of spam to legitimate email rose to 59.56%.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://usa.kaspersky.com/about/press-releases/2018_fifa-2018-and-bitcoin-among-2017-most-luring-topics|title=Kaspersky Lab Spam and Phishing report|date=May 26, 2021|access-date=July 17, 2018|archive-date=July 17, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180717183438/https://usa.kaspersky.com/about/press-releases/2018_fifa-2018-and-bitcoin-among-2017-most-luring-topics|url-status=live}}</ref> The percentage of spam email in 2021 is estimated to be 85%.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.thexyz.com/blog/2021-email-usage-statistics/|title=2021 Email Usage Statistics|date=October 5, 2021|access-date=October 5, 2021|archive-date=October 5, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211005234608/https://www.thexyz.com/blog/2021-email-usage-statistics/|url-status=live}}</ref>{{better source needed|date=October 2021}}

There are [[cryptography]] applications that can serve as a remedy to one or more of the above. For example, [[Virtual Private Network]]s or the [[Tor (network)|Tor network]] can be used to encrypt traffic from the user machine to a safer network while [[GNU Privacy Guard|GPG]], [[Pretty Good Privacy|PGP]], SMEmail,<ref>[https://www.arxiv.org/pdf/1002.3176 SMEmail – A New Protocol for the Secure E-mail in Mobile Environments], Proceedings of the Australian Telecommunications Networks and Applications Conference (ATNAC'08), pp. 39–44, Adelaide, Australia, Dec. 2008.</ref> or [[S/MIME]] can be used for [[end-to-end principle|end-to-end]] message encryption, and SMTP STARTTLS or SMTP over [[Transport Layer Security]]/Secure Sockets Layer can be used to encrypt communications for a single mail hop between the SMTP client and the SMTP server.

Originally Internet email was completely ASCII text-based. MIME now allows body content text and some header content text in international character sets, but other headers and email addresses using UTF-8, while standardized<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://registry.in/Internationalized_Domain_Names_IDNs|title=Internationalized Domain Names (IDNs) {{!}} Registry.In|website=registry.in|access-date=2016-10-17|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160513012539/https://registry.in/Internationalized_Domain_Names_IDNs|archive-date=2016-05-13}}</ref> have yet to be widely adopted.<ref name=first>{{cite web|url=https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/tech/internet/datamail-worlds-first-free-linguistic-email-service-supports-eight-india-languages/articleshow/54923001.cms|title=DataMail: World's first free linguistic email service supports eight India languages|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161022080739/https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/tech/internet/datamail-worlds-first-free-linguistic-email-service-supports-eight-india-languages/articleshow/54923001.cms|archive-date=2016-10-22}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://digitalconqurer.com/gadgets/made-india-datamail-empowers-russia-email-address-russian-language/|title=Made In India 'Datamail' Empowers Russia With Email Address In Russian Language - Digital Conqueror|date=7 December 2016|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170305005327/https://digitalconqurer.com/gadgets/made-india-datamail-empowers-russia-email-address-russian-language/|archive-date=5 March 2017}}</ref>

* {{Cite journal|last=Partridge|first=Craig|title=The Technical Development of Internet Email|journal=IEEE Annals of the History of Computing|volume=30|issue=2|date=April–June 2008|url=https://www.ir.bbn.com/~craig/papers/email.pdf|issn=1934-1547|doi=10.1109/mahc.2008.32|pages=3–29|s2cid=206442868|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160602161643/https://www.ir.bbn.com/~craig/papers/email.pdf|archive-date=2016-06-02}}