Email, also sometimes written as e-mail, is simply the shortened form of electronic mail, a protocol for receiving, sending, and storing electronic messages. Email has gained popularity with the spread of the Internet. In many cases, email has become the preferred method of communication.
Though there is some degree of uncertainty as to when email was invented, the father of the modern version is generally regarded to be American Ray Tomlinson. Before Tomlinson, messages could be sent between users, but only when they were connected to the same computer. Even once computers were networked, messages could not be targeted to a particular individual. Tomlinson devised a way to address email to certain users, and thus was credited for one of the most important communication inventions in the 20th century.
Tomlinson's idea was to identify the name of the user and the computer at which he or she was located. As a result, the basic formula for addressing an email was username@usercomputer. This standard has not changed much over the years, other than the user computer now commonly being replaced by the name of an email provider. In some cases, this is the same as the user's Internet service provider.
The influence of email cannot be overstated. The United States Postal Service, for example, notes that it handles 212 billion pieces of mail per year. Many sources have nearly that many emails being sent back and forth every single day. In other words, email handles more than 300 times the amount of mail of the largest postal system in the world.
Users receive and send email using simple message transfer protocol (STMP). Other protocols, including Post Office Protocol (POP) and Internet Message Access Protocol (IMAP), allow users to retrieve and store messages. Although there are other protocols for message retrieval and storage, SMTP is the standard protocol for sending and receiving messages via Internet Protocol (IP).