Ray Tomlinson, creator of the email dies

©  Getty Images AFP Photo / Miguel Riopa

Ray Tomlinson, creator of the email, dies aged 74 - and Gmail  has paid  a sweet tribute.He was responsible for the @ in your address.

Ray Tomlinson - widely regarded as the inventor of the email - has died, aged 74.

The programmer chose the famous @ sign to use in addresses, and is also credited with sending the first email.

He died of a reported heart attack on Saturday (March 5), and his death has led to tributes from the likes of Gmail:

Tomlinson was working at Massachusetts research and development company Bolt, Beranek and Newman in 1971 when he sent a message between two side-by-side computers on the ARPANET system.He chose the @ symbol to connect the username and destination address, which has gone on to be a staple of email and social media.

Since its invention, trillions of emails have been sent and around 4 billion accounts exist.

He admitted that he could not remember what the first message he sent was, saying: "Most likely the first message was QWERTYUIOP or something similar."

He also revealed: "I used the @ sign to indicate that the user was 'at' some other host rather than being local."

Tomlinson was also important in developing services for network mail, such as defining a place to put inbound email on a user's machine, as well as developing an agent to move email between machines.

He also contributed to the development of the email subject line. 

Tomlinson was inducted into the Internet Hall of Fame in 2012. Read more on >> PNG Technology news

 Source: Digital Spy