The symbol @ merely means 'at'. On an e-mail id, its purpose is to tell where the person can be loacated on the internet.
In effect, an e-mail address (or an e-mail id, as we usually called it) is like an ordinary address. What it does is to say who the person is, and where his message are going.
The part of an e-mail address that tells you a person's name, is called the username. And the part that tells you where his e-mail should be directed (or the name of the service provider) is called the mail server. There is another part at the end, like .com,.in,.co etc... which is called the domain name.
The symbol @ is used to seperate the user name from the later part. An example would be sachin@gmail.com. Now, when you send an email to this address, the .com domain will direct it to the Gmail server. Then the server would locate the mailbox of the username, and deliver the message.
In effect, an e-mail address (or an e-mail id, as we usually called it) is like an ordinary address. What it does is to say who the person is, and where his message are going.
The part of an e-mail address that tells you a person's name, is called the username. And the part that tells you where his e-mail should be directed (or the name of the service provider) is called the mail server. There is another part at the end, like .com,.in,.co etc... which is called the domain name.
The symbol @ is used to seperate the user name from the later part. An example would be sachin@gmail.com. Now, when you send an email to this address, the .com domain will direct it to the Gmail server. Then the server would locate the mailbox of the username, and deliver the message.
