What is email?

What Does email Mean

The email (also known as e-mail , an English term derived from mail electronic ) is a service that allows the exchange of messages via electronic communication systems. The concept is used mainly to name the system that provides this service via the Internet through the SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol) protocol , but it also allows to name other similar systems that use different technologies. E-mail messages make it possible to send, in addition to text, any type of digital document (images, videos, audios, etc.).

The operation of e-mail is similar to that of postal mail . Both allow you to send and receive messages, which arrive at their destination thanks to the existence of an address . Email also has its own mailboxes: these are the servers that temporarily store messages until the recipient reviews them.

The American Ray Tomlinson was the one who incorporated the at sign ( @ ) to the email addresses, with the intention of separating the name of the user and the server where the mailbox is hosted. The explanation is simple: @ , in English, is pronounced at and means “in” . For example: carlos@servidor.com is read carlos at server.com (that is, carlos at server.com ).
In addition to all the above, we also have to make known what the basic structure of any email is. Thus, we find the following basic elements:
The recipient. In this box called “To”, you can include both one and several addresses of the people to whom this email will be sent. In addition, the opportunity is given that those addresses that are going to be included are not visible by the rest of the people who receive them.
The case. It is the section where the subject on which the email revolves should appear briefly and concisely.
The message. In this section, of great amplitude, is where the message you want to send is written. For said text to be, aesthetically speaking, as we wish, tools are offered with which to choose the font, the alignment, the color, hyperlinks and even emoticons.
However, we cannot ignore that when sending an email also and in addition to the aforementioned text, and as we have previously stressed, we can incorporate various materials or files. This means that we can attach documents of various types (texts, spreadsheets, database, pdf ...) as well as photographs and even videos.
Then, whoever receives this email has different possibilities. Thus, you will not only be able to read it and reply to the issuer of it, but you will also be able to forward it to other recipients, archive it, permanently delete it, mark it, add tags and also classify it as spam.

The e-mail service is offered under two modalities: the one known as web mail or webmail , where messages are sent and received through a web page specially designed for it; and the service through an email client , which is a program that allows you to manage received messages and write new ones.

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