Editing At sign (section)

=== Email addresses ===
A common contemporary use of @ is in [[email address]]es (using the [[SMTP]] system), as in <code>jdoe@example.com</code> (the user <code>jdoe</code> located ''at'' the domain <code>example.com</code>). [[Ray Tomlinson]] of [[BBN Technologies]] is credited for having introduced this usage in 1971.<ref name=asperand /><ref>{{Cite web |last=Ray Tomlinson |author-link=Ray Tomlinson |title=The First Email |url=http://openmap.bbn.com/~tomlinso/ray/firstemailframe.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060506003539/http://openmap.bbn.com/~tomlinso/ray/firstemailframe.html |archive-date=2006-05-06 |publisher=[[BBN Technologies]]}}</ref> This idea of the symbol representing ''located at'' in the form <code>user@host</code> is also seen in other tools and protocols; for example, the [[Unix shell]] command <code>ssh jdoe@example.net</code> tries to establish an [[ssh]] connection to the computer with the [[hostname]] <code>example.net</code> using the username <code>jdoe</code>.

On web pages, organizations often obscure the email addresses of their members or employees by omitting the @. This practice, known as [[address munging]], attempts to make the email addresses less vulnerable to spam programs that scan the internet for them.