电子邮件翻译自英文的email或e-mail，它表示通过电子通讯系统进行信件的书写、发送和接收。今天使用的最多的通讯系统是互联网，同时电子邮件也是互联网上作受欢迎的功能之一。通过电子邮件系统，您可以用非常低廉的价格（不管发送到哪里，都只需负担电话费和网费即可），以非常快速的方式（几秒钟之内可以发送到世界上任何你指定的目的地）,与世界上任何一个角落的网络用户联络系，这些电子邮件可以是文字、图象、声音等各种方式。同时，您可以得到大量免费的新闻、专题邮件，并实现轻松的信息搜索。这是任何传统的方式也无法相比的。正是由于电子邮件的使用简易、投递迅速、收费低廉，易于保存、全球畅通无阻，使得电子邮件被广泛地应用，它使人们的交流方式得到了极大的改变。
什么是电子邮件呢？每一个申请互联网帐号的用户都会有一个电子邮件地址。它是一个很类似于用户家门牌号码的邮箱地址，或者更准确地说，相当于你在邮局租用了一个信箱。因为传统的信件是由邮递员送到你的家门口，而电子邮件则需要自己去查看信箱，只是您不用跨出家门一步。电子邮件来源于专有电子邮件系统。早在互联网流行以前很久，电子邮件就已经存在了，是在主机-多终端的主从式体系中从一台计算机终端向另一计算机终端传送文本信息的相对简单的方法而发展起来的。
经历了漫长的过程之后，它现在已经演变成为一个更加复杂并丰富得多的系统，可以传送声音、图片、图象、文档等多媒体信息，以至于如数据库或帐目报告等更加专业化的文件都可以电子邮件附件的形式在网上分发。现在，电子邮件已成为许多商家和组织机构的生命血脉。用户可以通过电子邮件的讨论会进行项目管理，并且有时要根据快速，或洲际的电子邮件信息交换进行重要的决策行动。但毫无疑问的是，互联网扩展了其应用的范围。过去只能在其局域网上进行交谈的公司现在可以通过网络与他们的客户、竞争伙伴和世界上的任何人进行通信和交流。一旦某个组织的电子邮件系统运行在支持TCP/IP协议的网络上或具有支持两个互联网邮件服务协议SMTP(简单邮件传输协议)和POP(邮局协议)之一的互联网网关，它的邮件用户就能够连接到任何具有相似连接的电子邮件地址上了，并且不论其电子邮件帐户在何处。
电子邮件的诞生
据电子邮件的发明人雷.汤姆林森(Ray Tomlinson)回忆道，电子邮件的诞生是在1971年秋季(确切的时间已经无法考证)，当时已经有一种可传输文件的电脑程序以及一种原始的信息程序。但两个程序存在极大的使用局限——例如：使用信息程序的人只能给接收方发送公报，接收方的电脑还必须与发送方一致。
发明电子邮件时，汤姆林森是马萨诸塞州剑桥的博尔特.贝拉尼克.纽曼研究公司(BBN)公司的重要工程师，当时，这家企业受聘于美国军方，参与Arpanet网络(互联网的前身)的建设和维护工作。汤姆林森对已有的传输文件程序以及信息程序进行研究，研制出一套新程序，它可通过电脑网络发送和接收信息，再也没有了以前的种种限制。为了让人们都拥有易识别的电子邮箱地址，汤姆林森决定采用＠符号，符号前面加用户名，后面加用户邮箱所在的地址。电子邮件由此诞生。
电子邮件的30年发展历程
虽然电子邮件是在70年代发明的，它却是在80年才得以兴起。70年代的沉寂主要是由于当时使用Arpanet网络的人太少，网络的速度也仅为目前56Kbps标准速度的二十分之一。受网络速度的限制，那时的用户只能发送些简短的信息，根本别想象现在那样发送大量照片；到80年代中期，个人电脑兴起，电子邮件开始在电脑迷以及大学生中广泛传播开来；到90年代中期，互联网浏览器诞生，全球网民人数激增，电子邮件被广为使用。
Eudora简史
使电子邮件成为主流的第一个程序是Euroda，是由史蒂夫·道纳尔在1988年编写的。由于Euroda是第一个有图形界面的电子邮件管理程序，它很快就成为各公司和大学校园内的主要使用的电子邮件程序。
然而Euroda的地位并没维持太长时间。随着互联网的兴起，Netscape和微软相续推出了它们的浏览器和相关程序。微软和它开发的Outlook使Euroda逐渐走向衰落。
在过去5年中，关于电子邮件发生的最大变化是基于互联网的电子邮件的兴起。人们可以通过任何联网的计算机在邮件网站上维护他们的邮件帐号，而不是只能在他们家中或公司的联网电脑上使用邮件。这种邮件是由Hotmail推广的。如今Hotmail已经成为一大热门网站，微软在8月宣布，邮件服务的用户已经达到了1.1亿。但微软在1998年收购此网站的时候却仅用了4亿美元，这个价格后来令Hotmail的创建者沙比尔·布哈蒂尔后悔不迭。
Hotmail的成功使一大批竞争者得到了启发，很快电子邮件成0为门户网站的必有服务,如雅虎，netscape，Exicite和Lycos等，都有自己的电子邮件服务。
电子邮件发展历史年表
Email timeline
The telegraph, morse code and the international telex network all performed some of the same functions as email, but the first email as we know it can be traced back to the 70s
Sarah Left
Wednesday March 13, 2002
1971: Ray Tomlinson, a computer engineer working for Bolt Beranek and Newman in Cambridge, Massachusetts, developed a system for sending messages between computers that used the @ symbol to identify addresses. He now can’t remember the first message he sent, or the exact date he sent it.
Tomlinson’s system gained popularity by linking up users on Arpanet, the US department of defence system that became the basis for the internet.
1972: Larry Roberts – also at work on Arpanet – writes the first email management program that develops the ability to list, select, forward, and respond to messages.
1976: Queen Elizabeth II sends an email message on Arpanet, becoming the first head of state to do so.
1988: Steve Dorner invents Eudora, an application that gave a popular face to email by providing a graphical user interface for email management.
1989: The first release of Lotus Notes email software. 35,000 copies are sold in the first year.
1996: Microsoft releases Internet Mail and News 1.0, a feature of its third release of Internet Explorer. This is later renamed Outlook.
1996: A few companies – including the fledgling Hotmail – begin to offer free, use-anywhere, internet email.
1997: About 10 million users world wide have free web mail accounts.
1998: Microsoft buys Hotmail for $400m (£283m).
2001: Email celebrates its 30th anniversary with virtually every business in the developed world signed on.
其他相关资料：
A Brief History of @
The Standard recounts the history of the @ symbol and explains how it became the addressing symbol in email addresses.
www.thestandard.com/article/0,1902,24139,00.html
A Brief History of Email
Very broad, very brief history of email.
www.ucmb.ulb.ac.be/documents/email_FAQ/email.history.html
A Brief History of SPAM, and Spam (Wired)
Wired magazine article looking at how unsolicited email became known as spam.
www.wired.com/news/business/0,1367,44111,00.html
Are You Sure You Want to Send This Message?
Fortune magazine article about “Great (and not-so-great) moments in e-mail history.”
www.fortune.com/fortune/technology/articles/0,15114,418889,00.html
Email Has Come A Long Way
Comprehensive article from CNET, celebrating and looking back at 30 years of email.
news.com.com/2100-1023-274170.html?legacy=cnet
Email History
Thesis, published in 1996, that examines the evolution of ARPAnet email. Also includes a very good timeline.
www.ifla.org/documents/internet/hari1.txt
Email timeline
UK newspaper, The Guardian, presents a basic chronology of the development of email.
www.guardian.co.uk/internetnews/story/0,7369,666750,00.html
Free Email R.I.P.: The Free Email Death-Watch
Timeline details how free email providers are becoming fee-based or disappearing altogether.
www.emailaddresses.com/email_rip.htm
History of Eudora
Short account of the early days of development of the email client, as told by its original creator.
www.dnai.com/~meh/interviews/gopher/english/1a-Steve-Dorner.html
Impacts of Email
General article about email includes an interesting and informative section entitled “Great moments in email history.”
www.cet.nau.edu/vte692/module_6/impacts_of_email.html
Origin of the term “spam” to mean net abuse
Brad Templeton explains the etymology of the term SPAM, and also offer a brief history of its usage.
www.templetons.com/brad/spamterm.html
Pine Project History
Read about the development of the Pine “mail system”, originally adapted from Elm as an easy-to-use email client.
www.washington.edu/pine/overview/project-history.html
Reaction to the DEC Spam of 1978
Brad Templeton collects the first spam message ever sent, along with the many reactions to it.
www.templetons.com/brad/spamreact.html
Talking Headers
Extract from the book Where Wizards Stay up Late, as published in the Washinton Post magazine, recounts the history of email.
www.olografix.org/gubi/estate/libri/wizards/email.html
The First Email Message
Article about the invention of email, including the story of the first email ever sent, with quotes from the man who sent it, Ray Tomlinson.
www.pretext.com/mar98/features/story2.htm
The History of LISTSERV
Comprehensive document looking back at the development and growth of this automatic mailing list server software, first used in 1985 on BITNET.
www.lsoft.com/products/default.asp?item=listserv-history
The History of ihnp4 and The Growth of the Email Network
The name of this site pretty much says it all. Timelines illustrating the development of ihnp4 and email.
www.research.att.com/%7Egjm/nostalgia/ihnp4.html
The Interoperability Report
History of email focusing mainly on the technical aspects of its development.
www.brandenburg.com/articles/EMail.Origins.txt
The Interoperability Report
History of email focusing mainly on the technical aspects of its development.
www.brandenburg.com/articles/EMail.Origins.txt
