Interesting facts about email

Email is considered one of the new communication mediums, both for personal and business use. It is one of the most widely used formats worldwide, thanks to its speed, free access, customization, and other advantages.

In today's post we want to explain five interesting facts about this communication and information exchange channel, through which 320 billion emails are exchanged every day worldwide.

Do you know what the first email address ever was?

It was tomlison@bbn-tenexa, the address that email founder Rat Tomlinson used to send his first messages. The .com and .es extensions came later.

What is the origin of the symbol “@”?

The symbol '@', "at" in English and "arroba" in Spanish, has its first documented uses being a Spanish and Portuguese abbreviation of 'arroba', a unit of measurement that in pottery served as the basis for the manufacture of containers, both for wine and for oil.

This is the most popular password

Believe it or not, the password that's among the most popular, presumably because it's so easy to remember, is "123456". It's highly recommended to avoid passwords like this, as they leave you wide open to any hacker looking to steal your data.

When did SPAM appear and what is the origin of its name?

It first appeared in 1978 as the mass sending of unsolicited emails. The term 'spam' began to be used in computing thanks to a Monty Python sketch in which Spam (a type of canned meat) appeared in every dish.

In what year was the first email sent from space?

It was in 1991, from an Apple laptop, using the Apple Link service. It was sent aboard the Space Shuttle Atlantis, and the message read: «Hello Earth! Greetings from the STS-43 crew. This is the first Apple Link message from space. We’re having a great time, wish you were here… Hasta la vista, baby… We’ll be back!» The last line was a reference to the film Terminator 2, which premiered that year in the United States.

Email represents a turning point in human communication, as we can now connect, for free, with anyone in the world using a mobile device. All we need is a mobile device with an internet connection and an email account, which you can easily obtain for free. Furthermore, you can now make calls and video calls via email.