What is the history of e-mail?

What is the history of e-mail?

Tim Burress (E-mail Etiquette and Organization Specialist) gives expert video advice on: What is the history of e-mail?; How will e-mail change in the next 5 to 10 years? and more...

The history of email is very interesting. Most people think that it started in the 80s or the 90s, but it actually went back into the late 60s and 70s. Some of the very first use of email was back in DOS and on very difficult to see screens and old antiquated computer systems. And then email gradually moved into what we have today, but there's been a lot of transitions in that, a lot of variations of it. But email today is basically a function of what we had in the 70s, where everything was very condensed and short yet there were certain spaces to limit things. Email didn't have the HTML and rich text function that we have today, and it was very sort of watered down.