Email has revolutionized the way we all interact. It’s awkward to think that 15 years ago few people had email addresses and those few people were not used to check email inboxes every day. Internet evolves so quickly that email has become very common. We all use this communication tool, everyday, but we have never thought on the email history.
In this article, you may find the most remarkable years in email history.
1965
The first message exchange system in computer was created. It’s assumed that the first systems were Q32 from SDC and CTSS from MIT.
1971
Ray Tomlinson, a North American programmer, used ARPANET (the mother in the internet) to send and receive simples messages. He also introduced @ to separate the user name from the origin of messages.
1978
Gary Thuerk sent an email to 600 ARPANET users, trying to sell Decsystem-20, the most recent computer so far.
1982
The term “e-mail” was used for the first time.
1990
The first host services appeared.
This year, SPAM appeared, which means, the mass email sending. It is believed that the term appeared because of the brand SPAM (Spiced Ham), a kind of canned meat from Hormel Foods Corporation, which was used as a joke by the British comedy group Monty Python. The intention was to mock the food rationing in England during and after the Second World War, in which SPAM was one of the included foods. So, people got sick of the brand and this motivated the creation of the episode.
1992
Microsoft created the first Outlook version, for its the operating system.
1996
The need of giving the internauts the possibility of accede their email in any computer emerged. 4th July, Sabeer Bathia and Jack Smith developed a system which worked with HyperText Markup Language (HTML). So, that brand Hotmail was born. Six months later, Hotmail had 6 million users!
1997
Sabeer Bathia sold Hotmail to Microsoft for 400 million dollars.
2007
Google officially launched its own email service, Gmail.
2011
Associated Press Stylebook chaged officially the term “e-mail” to “email”, given the natural change of the term usage.
How will be email history henceforth? It’s said that instant messages (Facebook Messenger, for example) will be responsible for the end of email, because nowadays they are much more used to communicate. However, email is much used to communicate inside companies, formal communications, to send archives and to keep information.