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E-mail clients
A few years ago, when the Internet was first beginning to become a popular
way to communicate, in order to send and receive e-mail, a person had to have a special
program loaded on his or her computer to accomplish the task. As more internet applications were developed, especially
web browsers like Netscape's Navigator and later Communicator and Microsoft's Internet
Explorer, software engineer's combined the functions of e-mail programs into these browsers. The idea was that
the computer user should have the ability to both send and receive e-mail within the same program that he or she
used to view web pages.
Today, the two popular web browsers still have e-mail clients bundled into
them, but there are still e-mail programs that can be used separately. One advantage
to using an e-mail client that is separate from a web browser is that it is likely to have more features. The decision,
then, to use an e-mail client that is bundled with a web browser or to use a separate e-mail client all boils down
to how many features the user needs to accomplish his or her daily e-mail tasks.
Most e-mail users will probably find that the e-mail client bundled with a
web browser is sufficient for their needs, but users who send and receive a large volume of mail might want to
check out a separate e-mail client. For example, when I began teaching English
50B via the internet this fall, I was using the e-mail client bundled with Netscape Communicator. However,
as the volume of my e-mail increased due to exchanges with my students, I switched to Eudora Pro, a stand-alone
e-mail client, because it enabled me to more easily send messages to particular addresses. I was able to add certain
e-mail addresses to pull-down menus so that I was able to save a step by choosing New Message and the recipient
at the same time.
If you are interested in trying a stand-alone e-mail client, check out the
e-mail resources page.
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