Spam

Spam is inappropriate, unsolicited, and irrelevant Internet content or messages. The Internet provides numerous platforms for information searching and knowledge gathering through email (communication medium), blogs (online diaries), wikis (knowledge bases), online forums (chatrooms), and online communities (social networks). These platforms fuel the continuous growth of information on the Internet; however, the ease with which such content is published (on websites) or communicated (via email) on the Internet also makes it equally easy to create inappropriate, unsolicited, and irrelevant content. Spam does not add value for the Internet user or the email user. Spam simply consists of unsolicited and unwanted messages. This entry describes the origin of spam and explains different types of spam. This entry also examines the socio-economic, environmental, and technical impacts of ...