Web-to-E-mail

By Duane Taylor
February 2001

What is it?

Web-To-E-mail is a service that allows users without full Internet access to browse the Web through e-mail.

Why do SD organizations need it?

As many as 50 per cent of all Internet users only have e-mail access. This could be due to bad connections or the cost of full access. Some people live in areas where strict controls prevent the viewing of certain pages. Web-to-E-mail provides a way for these people to access the vast amount of information on the Web. It also allows them to surf by having the links displayed in the reply.

With technology and proper access changing so quickly, eventually this service will not be needed. For the next five years or so there will still be a large percentage of users who only have e-mail. The majority of these users live in developing and emerging countries, where a large portion of sustainable development information is targeted.

How does it work?

When the URL is sent to the proper server, the server fetches the requested Web page. The server reads it and deciphers the information, translates it and sends it back to the user as an e-mail message.

With the WWW4mail service, if the user places the command GET before the URL, the request will be sent back as an HTML attachment (as shown below), without the graphics. The user will need a Web browser to view the document.



Click to see full image

The attachment has check boxes where all the links on the Web page are located. If the user wants to obtain the information on those links, all they have to do is click the desired boxes then hit the "Get Selected Document(s)" button in the menu options that are at the bottom of the attachment (under the red line in this case). The user also may set the size limit in bytes. This is useful for those who pay by the amount of information they download.

If a user does not have a Web browser, they can still get the information as a text-based e-mail (as shown below). To get a text-based version of a Web page the, user just needs to type in the URL and leave out the GET command.



Click to see full image

The top part of the e-mail will display the text of the Web page with numbers in brackets to indicate of a link. The bottom (under the red line in this case) shows the URLs of the corresponding links so that a user can request them.

Conclusion

Web-to-E-mail is a valuable service to most, if not all, SD organizations. It helps to reach a larger audience, especially in areas where Internet connections are slow and expensive. Promoting the existence of this service and setting up a server to run a Web-to-E-mail service are highly recommended.