The Blog Herald created a very interesting infographic summarizing the entire history of one of the oldest tools in Internet history: E-Mail.
In this infographic we can find several facts about e-mail, for example:
- 2 billion e-mails are sent every day.
- Brazil is the number one country for spams generation with 7.7 trillion (yes, trillions!) spams sent every year.
- There are around 1.3 billion e-mail users.
- The average size of an e-mail is 75KB.
- The @ symbol was included in keyboards in 1885, but the first original use for this character was in 1971 when Tomlinson used it as the division within the first e-mail sent.
Take a look to the complete infographic here:
How many times did you want just an email account for a few days or just a moment? Tempalias is a simple and free web app that can do that for us.
I don’t know about you, but I always find some sites that just for accessing some content they ask for a registration; and that step requires, of course, an email address. With that email address entered, I’m pretty sure that I’ll be receiving some spam, even though we are not subscribing to any newsletter or notification, the spam is always there.
Tempalias simply creates (for free and no registration required) for us a temporary mail account where we even can set the amount of days from which the account will be available; within that time, all mails sent to this temp mail box will be forwarded to a real account you select. After that, the mail is deleted and all possible spam associated will be lost.
Access the Tempalias site, enter your real email address and select the amount of days you wish the account to be available (or a number of received messages) and click on “Generate Alias”. And you’ll receive your temporary mail.
SnailMailr is a cool web app that basically allows you to send normal postage mail via the internet. It works by you filling out details such as your address, the address you want the letter posted to and writing your letter. You can send a letter with four pages for $1 anywhere in the United States. Each subsequent page costs you and extra $0.15. Also, for an extra $0.15 you can remove their logo which is printed on the envelope as show.
There is no need to register an you pay the balance via PayPal. It costs more to send letters internationally. You can send letters no matter where you’re located. In many cases, it’ll work out cheaper if you’re posting to the US and you live elsewhere!
The world over there is a common word that we all understand when it comes to virtual messages…spam! That same concept can be related to the countless pieces of junk mail we receive in our snail mail boxes. In an attempt to curb physical mail, Zumbox was created as a way to save paper and go greener.
Zumbox is a virtual mailbox that is accessible from anywhere in the world, and all your mail can be directed to this. No major warehouses needed with hundreds of scanners, it simply takes your mail from teh database that your mail is created in and sends the file directly to your account. You can browse your mail just like you would browse it in your home after checking your mailbox.
It’s a great idea, and I’m completely behind it, but the one drawback is immersion. This concept would have to be fully accepted for Zumbox to saturate the market and reduce 100% of all physical mail. Still it’s a great start and I encourage you to at least input your address. The service is free, it’s easy, accessible, and leaves less of an imprint on the planet then all the junkmail you receive. With special filters, reduced junk mail, checking your “mail” may actually be fun again…save for the bills.
