Introduction of Email
An electronic communication invented in the 1970s to do communication faster during the era of letters and telegrams that changed the way people communicate with each other is called an Email. Ray Tomlinson is called as the father of the email system, and he sent a communication between two computer systems for ARPANET. Email is called so since it is an electronic mail sent to a person or to a system, and unlike the normal mail, the physical letter or paper is not needed for the same. Instead of a postal service and an address, an email address and an internet connection are needed.
What is Email
- A method of exchanging messages instantly from one system to another with the help of the internet is called an Email. Initially, Email usage was limited to users of the same computer, and it asked for the users to be online to receive the messages. Time changed, and now we know how the mailbox looks. The mail can be sent to more than one recipient, and the recipient’s name can be hidden from others by adding their names in Bcc.
- The process starts with an email client’s help by connecting it through a server called Simple Mail Transfer Protocol through the internet. A dedicated port is assigned to the server to help the client transfer the messages through the mail. It is necessary to keep the header information intact so that the recipient’s email address should be correct. SMTP converts the information to transfer the mail content across the ports. The @ sign acts as a divider between the name and mail server, and hence SMTP looks for the mail server after @ sign.
- There are different clients for emails such as Outlook, Gmail, thunderbird etc. and mails can be sent and received from different clients. When the domains are different, SMTP looks for the domains in Domain Name System, and with the help of an IP address, a signal is sent to the recipient’s server saying about the email. Now the gateways are opened, and the mail is sent to the new server, and the communication happens.
Importance of Email
- Business communication can be done easily without any security issues, and it is faster than any other forms of communication. Also, contacts can be saved easily with the help of emails, and the past messages can be checked frequently rather than saving the data in the local server. This helps to save storage space.
- Most of the emails come with a subject line, and hence it is easy to understand the matter inside the email and categorize them accordingly. This helps in saving time checking for emails. Unwanted emails can be easily ignored and moved to spam folders.
- An informal communication tool where the language needs not be official as it is made to be simple as in a conversational talk so that the business runs smooth. The emails can be used as a tool to start the conversation as it is fast, and hence the business can be made to run smooth.
- Email is faster than it can be compared to one to one chat. As it can be made as an informational talk and as a serious business talk, email works magic in both ways in terms of speed. No other tool is this faster to send messages.
Uses of Email
- The one use that comes to focus more often is that we can contact the person any time of the day, and he/she can read the mail and respond at their own convenience. This makes the email to respect the individual’s time and avoid unnecessary communications.
- The traditional method of contacting people anywhere in the world used to be costly. With a single click, mail can be sent to anyone who has a mail address, which helps to maintain contacts easily. And this is done with no cost at all if the system is connected to the internet.
- Emails can be used for many purposes and this depends on the person who uses them. It can be used as a means of communication, informing a failure or an update, helping the team with instructions and guidelines to follow, route map for a trip, instructions to be followed for cleaning or hospitalizing and anything that seems relevant to the user.
- In educational terms, emails can be sent to apply for admissions, receive results and job offers. It helps the communication smooth and simple that people find it easy by clicking on the send button.
Advantages
Some of the advantages are given below:
- The main advantage we could think of email is that it is paperless. The documents of instructions and status updates can be sent through the mail rather than typing it in papers and distributing the same. This makes the work easy with less clutter and environment friendly.
- When there is a history of emails to be referred for a particular document, we can add a reference to the email and the process can eb made simple rather than going through the entire mail chain. Alerts can be set for emails, and it can be scheduled to send the emails on time so that the recipients receive the mails at the intended time.
- Photos or any documents can be shared easily to various people through a single mail, and it is received sooner by them. Also, as cloud storage, this can be saved permanently in the mailbox. Any details, including the time and the list of recipients who received the messages, can be saved and sorted if needed using emails.
- The users can set automated replies for the emails they receive, and this helps to save time.
Email etiquette to be followed while sending an email. This helps the user to sort out the emails and check for the important ones. Also, viruses spread through the attachments in the mail. Small disadvantages can be avoided for the bigger good of society, and hence judicial usage of emails helps people in many ways.
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