Electronic Mail

Abstract

Electronic mail, also known as e-mail or email, has become an accepted and often preferred method of communication. Using e-mail, a person can easily correspond with one or many recipients. Often, transmission of data occurs in a matter of seconds or fractions of seconds. The majority of Internet Service Providers, such as America Online (AOL), include at least one (and often many) e-mail addresses with the purchase of their services. These e-mail addresses may be called POP3 accounts, mailboxes, identities, or a variety of other terms. Furthermore, free accounts may be obtained through companies such as Yahoo! http://www.yahoo.com , Juno http://www.juno.com , Hotmail http://www.hotmail.com , or Medscape http://www.medscape.com . These companies use their e-mail Web pages for advertising, and this pays for the cost associated with maintaining free e-mail accounts for others.