Email

Email is a method of exchanging digital messages and a way of communicating electronically online. You can compose and receive messages to contacts of your choice and it also allows you to send attatchments, such as pictures or files.

Email is used in day to day life as a way of communicating with your friends and family. You can send and recieve messages to each other, at any time from anywhere in the world. It is quick and easy to use and with new technology, it is very easy to access your inbox from almost anywhere. You can also use email as a way of communicating with other people such as your peers and employers. It is free to use, and although you do need internet access, the emails are delivered immediately, making it a very quick way to communicate.

Gmail is an email provider. It is good to use because it has a priority inbox which filters your inbox to find the important messages. It automatically brings the important ones to the top of your list so it is easy to see if you have important emails or not. It is based on the emails that you have already read and replied to, however, if it has labeled your email as important or if it is not including one you would count as important, then you can manually change it. This makes it easier to check your messages as you do not have to waste your time looking through your entire inbox, trying to find the important ones.
It also has a star feature. If you want to see an email later, it allows you to put a star on it and it seperates it from the others so that it is easy for you to come back to it later. This feature is not available on other email providers such as hotmail. You can also automatically put a star by an email from a particular person, so that if you need to always read all the emails from this person, it will filter all of future received emails and put them into a 'star' folder with other important emails.
There are also many filters which filters the information better, reducing information overload. This means that it takes up less space on a computer. It also saves time as it has a spam filter. It automatically puts all of the spam in one folder so that you do not have to trace through your entire inbox trying to seperate the spam from the rest of your messages. This makes it better than other email providers as it makes it more enjoyable while browsing through your inbox as it saves your time.

Hotmail is another email provider. It is good to use because it has a 'one-stop inboxing' feature. This is where you can bring all of your different accounts together to make it quicker to view all of your emails. If you have various email addresses for different things, then you can use this feature to bring them all together. This is good if you need to read all of your emails quickly as you do not have to waste time in logging into each email account.
It also has a spam filter which as well as seperating the spam from your important messages, it also has advanced security protection from Microsoft, so it also protects your computer. This is good to have as it makes it easier to read your emails as it is simpler. It would be quicker for you as you do not have to scroll through lots of spam emails.
Hotmail also offers a 'hotmail for mobile' feature. As most people now have a mobile phone which allows them on the internet almost anywhere, this feature allows you to take your email with you. This makes it easier for you as you do not have to have access to a computer in order to check your emails. This makes reading your emails more simple.
When you log into Hotmail,it has a news feed of all of your contacts 'personal messages' on Windows Live Messenger. This is a chat feature that is built into Hotmail. It allows you to talk to your contacts when they are online. You can play games with them, send each other pictures and have a video call, if you have a microphone and webcam.
Hotmail also puts all of your emails into different folders so that it is easier for you to sort through them. All emails from social networking sites go into one folder, and all of the important emails from your contacts go into a different folder. There is also a calender to show when all of your friends birthday is so that you do not forget.

Advantages of email are that it is free and easy to use. It is easy to setup and maintain. It is also a reliable and secure way of communicating with people. It is easy as it is very quick as the emails are delivered instantly anywhere across the globe. It is also environmentally friendly and easy to refer back to if you need to.
Disadvantages of email is that many computer programmes have the potential to harm a computer system and you could get a virus. There is also the chance that your account can be hacked or your emails can eb misinterpreted. Also, in order to keep up to date with your emails, you need to check your inbox regularly.

"Man charged with sending terrorist material by email"
A man has been charged on many accounts after sending an email which involves terrorist material by email.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1153742/Man-charged-sending-terrorist-material-email.html

"BT suspends 30 call centre staff for circulating Irish joke by email"
30 people at a call centre have been suspended from their job as they sent around a joke which was labelled as being offensive.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1152302/BT-suspends-30-centre-staff-circulating-Irish-joke-email.html

"Bank of England hit by email hoax"
The Bank of England was the victim of a hoax email that asked business and the public to download software to protect their cash accounts.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-204914/Bank-England-hit-email-hoax.html