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WebmailWebmail is a web application that allows users to read and write e-mail using a web browser. Webmail is commonly offered as a service by Internet companies, sometimes in exchange for providing personal information for marketing purposes. It may also be offered by one's Internet service provider for remote access to a regular email account. There are many open source programs that allow one to set up an HTTP mail user agent (see external link below). Some mail servers, such as Microsoft Exchange or Kerio MailServer, contain built-in webmail interface. Features Most webmail services have the following features: Several webmail services offer the following features: - E-mail spam detection
- POP3 mail retrieval
- anti-virus checking of mail attachments
- dictionary and thesaurus when composing messages
- spell checker
Advantages of webmail services - Email can be read and composed anywhere a person has access to a web browser and an internet connection.
- Messages do not have to be downloaded.
- Many services allow anonymous sign-ups.
Disadvantages of webmail services - The user must stay online to read and write more than one email. They cannot easily save mails they are working on (except by cutting and pasting the text).
- Commercial webmail services often offer only limited email storage space and either display advertisements during use or append them to mails sent. Unlike with a local client, the user cannot keep the messages on their local hard drive.
- Webmail can be hampered by a slow network connection.
- Most emails are usually short, plain text messages of less than 2 KB, but using webmail the original email is wrapped in HTML that can be 40 KB or more. Obviously this brings a significant decrease in speed of use.
Other features of webmail - Webmail accounts can be set up and discarded quickly, thus can provide a degree of anonymity.
- The ability to access it anywhere means it is harder to trace the individual who uses an account than if they used a connection associated with their home address.
These features mean it can in theory be more easily used as a communication tool for nefarious purposes (or for avoiding oppressive authorities) than conventional e-mail. In practice, most governments security agencies are fairly easily able to track individuals who try to use such methods, just as with someone who calls from phone booths. Ordinary citizens will find it more difficult, however. History Historically, the first webmail service was Hotmail, created in 1995 by Sabeer Bhatia of India. Hotmail became very popular, and was later bought by Microsoft and re-branded MSN Hotmail. Since then, webmail offerings are widespread, with offers ranging from Chinese portal Sina to European portals such as Voila.fr or GMX.de. In early 2004, Google announced the arrival of Gmail, a free webmail solution including new features such as a 2 GB storage limit and conversation threading. This has strongly stimulated competition in this sphere, forcing most webmails, and in particular Yahoo! Mail and Hotmail, to review their web-mails offers and increase their storage from a few MB to several hundred MB. There is webmail software available that allows one to create ones own webmail server, notably open source software such as Horde IMP or Squirrelmail. Many universities take advantage of this software to provide students and faculty with university webmail. External links
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