10 Essential Facts About Email Everyone Should Know

4 min read

Every day, more than 320 billion emails are exchanged worldwide. With approximately 2.8 billion users and more than 4.5 billion email addresses, email is undoubtedly the most widespread channel for communication and information exchange on the planet. We use it both personally and professionally and for all types of matters, from the most trivial to those of greater significance.

Here we leave you a list of ten facts and tips about email:

1. What was the first email address that existed?

This honor goes to “tomlinson@bbn-tenexa”, the address that Ray Tomlinson, the father of email, used to send his first messages. Although extensions like “.com” or “.es” would still take time to arrive, this is the first email address that existed as we know them today.

2. Where does the “@” symbol in an email address come from?

The “@” symbol, “at” in English and “arroba” in Spanish, is equivalent to the Latin representation of “ad” or “at”. However, its first documented uses are as Spanish and Portuguese abbreviations of “arroba”, a unit of measurement that in pottery served as a base for making containers for wine or oil.

3. The importance of a good password

In our email accounts, important data and references from our daily lives are frequently stored, so to avoid having this data stolen or even having our identity usurped, it is essential to use a password that offers us a series of guarantees. Therefore, at minimum, our password should have at least 10 characters, including uppercase letters, lowercase letters, numbers, and some special characters.

4. What probative value does an email have?

Email, by itself, has no probative value when, in any type of proceeding, one of the parties questions having received it. For an email to have probative force it is necessary to be able to prove three fundamental facts: to whom it was sent, what it contained, and when the delivery took place. This is where the importance of having a third party certify that sending comes into play.

5. Can one of my emails be considered spam?

If our email provider operates professionally, respecting good practices in email sending, and with IP addresses from which it delivers with high reputation, we should not encounter any problems.

When sending the same message to many contacts, use blind copy (BCC) whenever possible. You will avoid having possible responses reach all recipients and, in addition, you will help protect the privacy of the recipients’ addresses.

7. Do email addresses distinguish between uppercase and lowercase?

An email address has two parts: the local part and the Internet domain, both separated by an “@”. Internet domains do not distinguish between uppercase and lowercase, so it doesn’t matter if we write “@COMPANY.COM” or “@company.com”. The same does not necessarily happen with the local part of the address, where technically there is the possibility of distinguishing them; however, it’s not something common, so we can be at ease writing to both “John.Nobody@” and “john.nobody@”.

8. What is the difference between an encrypted email and a certified email?

We could say that in the first case, the content is protected from prying eyes, while in the second, we ensure that we can prove to third parties the sending of an email.

9. Is there a limit on the size of attachments in an email?

Technically, nothing prevents exchanging gigabytes of data via email, but email was not designed for this purpose and email providers choose to set a limit on the size of emails they send or accept. In this line, the most widespread maximum size is between 20 and 25 megabytes.

10. Send it once, read it twice

It’s surprising how many emails are sent with errors, not only grammatical or spelling errors, but it’s frequent that words are missing that leave entire messages without meaning. A good piece of advice: read it twice, send it only once.

Sources:

Data from Radicati Group
Data from Radicati Group and Statista

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