Spamming is the use of any electronic communications medium to send unsolicited messages in bulk, indiscriminately – unlike sending to a selected group in normal marketing. In the popular eye, the most common form of spam is that delivered in e-mail as a form of commercial advertising. However, over the short history of electronic media, people have done things comparable to spamming for many purposes other than the commercial, and in many media other than e-mail. Spammers have developed a variety of spamming techniques, which vary by media: e-mail spam, instant messaging spam, Usenet newsgroup spam, Web search engines spam, weblogs spam, and mobile phone messaging spam. Spamming (the name of which derives from a Monty Python sketch about SPAM brand processed meat) is economically viable because it allows advertisers to shift their operating costs to the public, as Internet service providers must add extra capacity to cope with the deluge. Spamming is widely reviled, and has been the subject of legislation in a number of jurisdictions, including the U.S. CAN-SPAM Act of 2003.

Read the rest of this article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spam_%28electronic%29

_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:

1054: Chinese astronomers observed a supernova in the Crab Nebula. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crab_Nebula)

1187: Saladin defeated Guy of Lusignan at the Battle of Hattin. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Hattin)

1776: The Continental Congress of the Thirteen Colonies approved a Declaration of Independence from the Kingdom of Great Britain. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Declaration_of_Independence_%28United_States%29)

1802: At West Point, New York, the United States Military Academy opened. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States)

1976: Operation Entebbe: Israeli commandos raided Uganda's Entebbe Airport to free hostages taken by PLO and RAF militants. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Entebbe)

_____________________ Wikiquote of the day:

"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness." -- ''The Declaration of Independence of the United States of America (http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/w%3ADeclaration_of_Independence_%28United_State...)