Besides web browsing, email is the most common activity on the Internet. Making it a snap to communicate 1-on-1 or in a group, email has been around even before the existence of the World Wide Web or browser-based Internet. Companies, engineers and early Internet adopters have been using email since before the era of browser surfing.
The union of browser and email, ie. webmail was what gave a huge boost to the adoption of email by the domestic Internet user. The first movers offering webmail to the market were Hotmail and AOL. Google’s Gmail is now the most commonly used email platform. I explained how browser-based Internet works in a two-part series (Part 1, Part 2). In this post, I will explain how Email works. Exactly what happens when you click the Send button and how does the email find its way to the recipient?