Email Trivia

In 1941, the world's first email message was sent by Ray Tomlinson, a programmer. Other email had been send prior to that, but they were sent between users on the same computer. Tomlinson is the one who first used the @ sign in email addresses. It's been used ever since.

The term "spam" originated from a Monty Python skit where a chorus of Vikings sang "spam, spam, spam." until they are told to stop. The connection is something repeated over and over and over to everyone's great annoyance.

The sad thing is that by 2004, the New York Time reports, 62% of all email messages were spam.

It is difficult to filter successfully for spam. For example, the word "Cialis" is embedded in the word "specialist."

The cost of spam email messages is enormous. It's over $22 billion annually.

While Bill Clinton was President, he was not an email junkie. He only sent two email in eight years, one to John Glenn when he was aboard the space shuttle. The other one was to test the email system.

35,000,000,000 (35 billion) email messages are sent every day, worldwide.

When asked if they were more aggravated by weeding through spam email than they were by cleaning a dirty toilet, 77% responded that they were.