The History of Email: From MAILBOX to AOL

Email is a vital part of our daily communication, but it has a long and complex history that predates the internet. This article traces the evolution of email from its origins in the 1960s to its global expansion in the 1990s.

The first email system was MAILBOX, a program that allowed users to leave messages for each other on the same computer at MIT in 1965. This system was limited by the availability of shared computers.

In 1969, ARPANET was launched by the US Department of Defense as a network that connected multiple computers across the department. The first message was sent from one computer to another on ARPANET in 1969.

In 1971, Ray Tomlinson developed a networked email system for ARPANET that enabled users to send messages to different machines within an organization. He also introduced the “@” symbol to indicate the destination of the messages as “username@nameofcomputer”.

As email communication grew within and between organizations, there was a need for storing and organizing messages. This led to the development of early email inboxes in the 1980s.

During the same decade, Internet Service Providers (ISPs) started connecting people worldwide, and email hosting sites emerged, offering users access to email as their first introduction to the internet.

By 1993, email had become a common term and a popular communication tool. Companies like AOL, Echomail, Hotmail, and Yahoo invested in marketing and technology to make email accessible and appealing to a wider audience.