Email

To e-mail, means to communicate electronically by computer.

GMail

1. Gmail prioritises your mail and sorts out which mail is most important and which ones can wait
2. The important emails are brought to the top and everything else will be underneath
3. There is a star feature, this feature allows you to put messages that you feel are important into a separate folder; this way you can get to it later on
4. Tools like this help you to avoid information overload, allowing you to filter information better. This is good because there is less time taken on getting rid on spam emails
5. If there is a person that you know is important and you NEED to get their emails, you can make GMail filter through your emails and put a star onto that persons emails and there messages will be put into the star folder; ready for you to read
6. Gmail records which emails you read on a daily basis, it remembers which are important, so if you don't read spam GMail recognises it
7. It can change prioritisation manually based on what you do and don't read over a period of time

www.bbc.co.uk/technology



Yahoo

1. Yahoo is a simpler version of Hotmail.
2. It is not as advanced as GMail, being able to sort through your mail, however if you receive mail continuously from an e-mail address and you don't want it, you can move it to the 'Spam' folder and all messages that come from that e-mail address will automatically be put into the 'Spam' folder.
3. It will then delete the contents of that folder, over a period of time that you can change in the 'Settings' option.
4. You can also get a daily update on important news that is going on around the world and in your area.
5. Yahoo also has a handy messenger, incredibly similar to 'Hotmail Messenger'. The only difference between the two is that one is 'Yahoo!' and the other is 'Hotmail'.

Benefits and Problems of E-Mail

Benefits

• More publicity --> for instance if a company sends an e-mail, the recipient knows that it is from that particular company, because the e-mail contains the companies name; this makes people more aware of the company.
•  Fast --> e-mails can arrive at their destination pretty much simultaneously as of when it was sent.
• Cheap --> they are cheap because you can send as many e-mails as you want and all you have to pay for is the electricity.  Whereas if you were to text someone something important, via. mobile, it would cost you about 10pence.
• Environmentally friendly --> considering that when you write a letter you use up paper; which was made by trees which allow us to breath, e-mail is considerably more environmentally friendly.
• Multiple e-mails --> one can send the same e-mail to multiple recipients, quickly and easily.  This also allows for better use of time, because if you were to write a letter to each individual person, it could take a VERY LONG TIME!
• Numerous attachments --> when writing an e-mail you can also send pictures, videos, music etc. without any delay and it can be seen the very same day without anything missing and your point would have got across immediately.  Whereas if you were to write a letter and try to explain the images, videos etc. it would have been very difficult and tedious.

Problems

• Inappropriate e-mails --> people are able to send offensive and/or sexually explicit e-mails to others; but seeing as they are already on the web, they are unable to right their wrong.
• Trick or treat --> people may hack into others accounts and send crude and unearthly messages to others; but because it is on another persons account, they may be mistaken as the person who sent the e-mail.
• Trick or treat 2 --> people may create false websites of new and/or already known business' and trick people to send them money.  The worst kind are the sites that trick people to send their bank details and then identity theft is out into place; and identity theft is the hardest kind of theft to fight.
• Viruses --> people may send e-mails with attachments that the recipients may think is one thing but is in-fact a virus, that is waiting to be downloaded.

News stories related to e-mails

"Leaked email from furious young Tory Adele Douglas reveals the abuse she received from Conservatives for being northern"

On the 13th of April, 2010, a man called Bob Roberts reported the abuse the Conservative party had dished out to a young woman called Tory Adele Douglas.  They abused her accent, origin and the fact that she was seeing a man of Asian origin.

This proves that even in our own Government there are prejudice people.

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/top-stories/2010/04/13/leaked-email-from-furious-young-tory-adele-douglas-reveals-the-abuse-she-received-from-conservatives-for-being-northern-115875-22181740/

"Ticket site closed on fraud fears.  Thousands of people have been warned they may not receive concert tickets from a website that has been shut down by the Metropolitan Police"

On the 21st of October, 2008, the BBC reported the suspicious behaviour of a box office site that was - supposedly - selling tickets for upcoming gigs.  It turned out that the site was a fake but by this time - paperticket.com - had managed to swindle over £2.5m out of people before it was shut down.

This just proves how careful one must when buying things online, unless you are fully aware of the site and have checked its authenticity, you should NEVER give out bank details and/or register.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/7680814.stm