The internet has enabled people to communicate in a more timely and efficient way. It has changed the way people conduct their personal and business activities, thus changing nearly every aspect of life. Internet communication tools include websites, e-mails, forums, chats, and streams (Fenell, 2010). The following are some of the terms used in online communication tools:
User ID: a distinctive combination of characters, like letters or numbers which users accessing their accounts are required to provide for identification. Many users prefer to use their first and last names for identification. A user named Mike Cooper might select M Cooper as his user ID.
Host name: this is an identifier for devices communicating over the internet. Host names are essentials in emails or usenet for identifying devices (computers). Host names can be straightforward names having one word or phrase, or have complicated names with Domain Name System (DNS) identifier.
Snail mail: known as paper mail, snail mail refers to the traditional physical mails that take longer time to reach the recipients as compared to e-mails.
E-mail client: this is a computer application that helps users to organize their e-mail since it can access the mailbox. Apple mail and Mozilla are examples.
POP (Post Office Protocol): is a standard used by users to efficiently access or receive e-mails from a distant server within a TCP/IP network.
SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol): is a standard used by mail servers, user-level clients, and mail transfer agents in sending and receiving e-mails over IP networks.
IMAP (Internet Message Access Protocol): is a flexible standard that enables an email client to retrieve e-mail from a distant mail server. It has rich functionality as compared to POP, since users can track the status of mails and access many mails simultaneously (Shelly, Napier, & Rivers, 2009).
To line: it consists of the email addresses of those people who are required to receive the message and act upon it.
Cc line: Cc is “carbon copy”. This line denotes the people who should receive the copy of the message without necessarily responding to it.
Courtesy copy: is a business e-mail term used to notify stakeholders about the message being conveyed within the business. They are not supposed to respond but they should be aware of the message. It is also known as Cc.
Bcc line: Bcc is “blind carbon copy”. This line specifies the email addresses that receive the copy of the message but such addresses are hidden from the recipients.
Blind courtesy copy: It is a term used in business environments to refer to Bcc. The receivers of the message are unable to know the people who are blind carbon copied.
Subject line: shows the topic of the message that enable the receiver to know the exact content of the message.
Attach line: is where users can click and select the files to send with the e-mail.
Attachment: files that are transmitted together with the e-mail.
Message body: it is the full explanation of the subject matter, normally includes a request for action and time frame for the action.
Signature file: a short text file placed at the end of e-mail messages for identification. The file might contain name and address of the sender.
Message header: it shows the path that a message used as it passed mail servers. It is normally used for tracking and monitoring purposes.
HTML-formatted message: a message that is constructed using hypertext markup language tags. Web mails such as Gmail support HTML formatted messages.
Flaming: this is an unfriendly and abusive interaction between e-mail or chat users. People who introduce such conversations are known as flamers.
Emoticon: this is a facial appearance that is depicted through punctuation and letters, normally to enable users express their feelings in writing messages (Stair & Reynolds, 2006).
The above terms are the basics of an online communication tool. E-mail is one of the most popular online communication tools due to various reasons. First, e-mail allows people to send messages without any postage expenses, making it easy to communicate. Second, business information or messages can be conveyed in real-time because e-mail is faster than traditional physical mails. Third, e-mail enables businesses to generate immediate response to customer registration and online purchasing activities.
This can be done through links that give clients an opportunity to access business offerings. Fourth, e-mail is used as a target market tool. Companies can separate lists into categories so their e-mails go to the anticipated customers. Fifth, e-mail expands the awareness of business products and services through the forwarding capability that enable users to send messages to others. Lastly, e-mails acts as storage tools for vital information about individuals (Shelly et al., 2009). Attachments can be retrieved easily at any time even if the original file was corrupted by computer virus or accidentally lost. Therefore, organizations see e-mail as an indispensable business communication tool.
References
Fenell, Z. (2010). Internet based Communication Tools. Web.
Shelly, G.B., Napier, H.A, & Rivers, O. (2009). Discovering the Internet: Complete Concepts and Techniques. 3rd Ed. Boston: Cengage Learning, Inc.
Stair, R.M., & Reynolds, G. W. (2006). Fundamentals of information systems. (3rd Ed.). Boston: Thompson Course Technology.