Electronic mail (e-mail for short) is a form of electronic communication that allows for the composing, sending, receiving and storage of messages or mail over the Internet and intranet. (Wikipedia).
Email has developed from being used on networks between computer users (Net History) to being the most common method of online communication around the world. Ironically, email was only ever intended to be used as a short and quick messaging system. Now, the whole world uses it to stay in contact and as a cheaper way to communicate. Today, large files are able to be sent instantaneously over the Internet, as opposed to paying a courier to deliver it which costs money and takes time.
Email is now used for communication for various purposes.
These include:
Email is built on the Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) which has become the de-facto standard for enabling email transmission over networks. This has since been revised to the Extended SMTP.
There are various email clients (also known as email software programs) that enables the management of the composing, retrieval and storage functions from a local computer.
Such programs include:
There are many companies and organisations that provide free online email accounts. These include Google’s gmail and Microsoft’s hotmail or now, Windows Live Mail. These free email websites have lately been increasing the capacity, download and upload limits.