Internet

Within just a few years, the Internet has developed into one of the most important forms of communication. Several million households in Germany and across Europe are already linked to the net and the number is growing every day. Information from all over the world is accessible in even the most remote corner of Europe within a matter of seconds. It is also possible to send almost instantaneous electronic mail via the Internet. More than any other symbol, the @ sign in e-mail addresses, which the Germans call spider-monkey, the Chinese call little mouse and the Greeks lovingly refer to as duckling, now stands for the rapid exchange of information. The history of the @ sign can be traced back to the early modern era and even then facilitated communication within Europe. Spanish, Portuguese and French merchants used it as an abbreviation for the measure "arroba" (a quarter).