Email

E-mail Timeline

By roberto1589

  • Fernando Corbato

    Fernando Corbato
    Fernando Corbato from MIT developed an ingenious way of communicating between colleagues using text messages.

  • Ray Tomlinson

    Ray Tomlinson
    Ray Tomlinson, developed a system for sending messages between computers that used the “@”symbol to identify addresses. He sent the first electronic mail message.

  • Larry Roberts

    Larry Roberts
    Larry Roberts developed the first e-mail management program that develops the ability to list, select, forward, and respond to messages.

  • Advertising through Email

    Advertising through Email
    The first electronically-sent advertisement goes out, over a network of government and university computers.

  • Email and Emoticon

    Email and Emoticon
    The word “email” is first used. The first ever smiley “emoticon” is invented by Scott Fahlman.

  • Steve Dorner

    Steve Dorner
    Steve Dorner invents Eudora, an application that gave a popular face to e-mail by providing a graphical user interface for e-mail management.

  • Lotus Notes

    Lotus Notes
    The first release of Lotus Notes email software. 35,000 copies are sold in the first year.

  • Hotmail

    Hotmail
    A few companies – including the Hotmail – begin to offer free, user-anywhere, internet mail.

  • MIcrosoft Outlook

    MIcrosoft Outlook
    Microsoft Outlook is released. Microsoft buys Hotmail for about $400 million. About 10 million users worldwide have free web mail accounts.

  • SPAM

    SPAM
    The word “spam” is added to the Oxford English Dictionary.

  • 30th Anniversary

    30th Anniversary
    E-mail celebrates its 30th anniversary with virtually every business in the developed world signed on. Reach Mail is created and marketers rejoice. Email deliverability has never been so easy.

  • CAN-SPAM ACT

    CAN-SPAM ACT
    George W. Bush signs into law the CAN-SPAM ACT, the US first national standards for sending commercial e-mails.

  • FTC Security

    FTC codifies e-mail spam laws. Multimedia emails are introduced after the MMS World Congress in Vienna.

  • SPF Technology

    SPF, the first technology that verifies email senders’ identities, is established.

  • Gmail

    Gmail
    Google makes Gmail available to the public worldwide. Anti-phishing security protocol DKIM is adopted by the Internet Engineering Task Force.

  • Email

    Email
    The Associated Press Stylebook changes “e-mail” to “email”.