Discover the Unexpected: Top 9 Entertaining Email Fun Facts You Never Knew!

1. First Flirty Email

Before "You've Got Mail" was a 90s rom-com staple, it all started with Ray Tomlinson sending sweet nothings to the computer beside him: In 1971, computer engineer Ray Tomlinson sent the first-ever network email from one computer to another in Cambridge, Massachusetts, using ARPANET. The content of this flirty little message was simply "something like QWERTYUIOP" – the first-ever love letter between machines.
Source => economictimes.indiatimes.com

2. Queen of the Internet

You could say Her Majesty was the "Queen of the Internet" before it was cool: Queen Elizabeth II sent her first email in the late 1970s, making her an early adopter of the technology, amidst celebrations of a nascent internet network in England, and she continued to embrace advancements like television, space exploration, and virtual meetings throughout her 70-year reign.
Source => nationalgeographic.com

Did you know Roman mail carriers could gallop a whopping 800 km in just 24 hours with their trusty steeds and relay of horses, all while dodging robbers and political enemies? Discover the fascinating world of the ancient Cursus publicus and the resourceful tabellarii! 🏇✉️

=> Fun Facts about Technology

3. '@' Symbol's Ancient Roots

Feeling '@' a loss for the history behind our favorite curly, little queue of computer code? Turns out, this symbol is way older than the floppy disk: In reality, the @ symbol was adopted by Ray Tomlinson in 1972 to denote location or institution in email addresses and has roots tracing back to Latin scribes in the 6th or 7th centuries. The symbol's modern meaning of "at the price of" comes from 14th-century merchants using it as shorthand for "amphora" – a standard-sized vessel for transporting wine and grain.
Source => webopedia.com

4. Space Email Pioneers

Once upon a cyberspace, where Apple's finest mingled with intergalactic explorers: The first-ever email sent from space was actually on August 28, 1991, by astronauts Shannon Lucid and James C. Adamson aboard NASA's space shuttle Atlantis, using an Apple Macintosh Portable and the AppleLink network to reach none other than Marcia Ivans at the Johnson Space Center in Houston, USA - and who could forget their cheeky sign-off, "Hasta la vista, baby!"
Source => guinnessworldrecords.com

5. X-Rated Spam Convictions

When Harry Met Sally, the original spam story: In 2007, two ambitious email artists, striving to reach peak fame, landed in a legal bind – not for sharing suggestive sandwiches, but for dishing out full-blown, X-rated spam. The first to be convicted under the CAN-SPAM Act of 2003 for sending obscene materials: these pioneers of inbox invasion were sentenced to five years in prison and ordered to forfeit $1.3 million, proving sometimes too much sharing is simply too much.
Source => en.wikipedia.org

6. Spam Sandwich Overload

In the great digital sandwich of life, it appears that spam is the unwanted filler we can't seem to escape: Almost half of all emails worldwide in 2022 were classified as spam, with the spam email rate rising to 49 percent from 46 percent the previous year. Interestingly, the proportion of spam emails has declined since 2011, while February 2022 saw a record spam email deluge, accounting for a whopping 53 percent of global email traffic.
Source => statista.com

7. Tricked by Gmail Checkmark

As cunning as a fox with a degree in email fraud: Gmail's checkmark sender verification system is being duped by scammers to make their emails appear legitimate, prompting Google to acknowledge the issue and work on a solution – a reminder not to put all our trust in the almighty blue checkmark!
Source => forbes.com

8. Snail Mail's Hilarious History

Move over, Usain Bolt: snail mail is here to claim the title for the slowest thing in town! Coined in 1983, this hilarious nickname contrasts the pace of traditional mail delivery with the supersonic speed of email, demonstrating that even humans couldn't help but poke fun at how slow physical mail is compared to its digital counterpart: Seriously though, the term "snail mail" was established in 1983 to highlight the difference between postal mail and email, with attempts to make the mail system faster even dating back to 1899 when pneumatic tubes were used for speedy delivery in certain cities.
Source => etymonline.com

9. Emoji Plot Twist

Who knew emojis could pack such a punch, just like a last-minute plot twist in a thriller novel? The secret's out: Emojis can increase email open rates by up to 56%, but beware of false positives from Apple Privacy Protection since iOS 15. Instead, track click rates to truly measure these happy little icons' impact on your email campaigns.
Source => linkedin.com