Free
E-Mailing Services: E-mail predates the Internet;
existing e-mail systems were a crucial tool
in creating the Internet. E-mail started in
1965 as a way for multiple users of a time-sharing
mainframe computer to communicate. Although
the exact history is murky, among the first
systems to have such a facility were SDC's Q32
and MIT's CTSS. E-mail was quickly extended
to become network e-mail, allowing users to
pass messages between different computers. The
early history of network e-mail is also murky;
the AUTODIN system may have been the first allowing
electronic text messages to be transferred between
users on different computers in 1966, but it
is possible the SAGE system had something similar
some time before. |