Orlyk sent a mass e-mail directing friends and family to the GiveForward campaign page she created to cover the cost of a hospital bed, wheelchair and a part-time, in-home health aide.

FORBES: By Linda Childers, Next Avenue Contributor

Last month, workers at Agency.com, a hot Web design shop in New York with a reputation for coddling the help, got a mass e-mail from the office of boss Chan Suh that was supposed to list unused vacation time.

FORBES: The Informer

Around 1900, The DIY Victorian valentine was supplanted by mass-produced cards delivered by mail.

FORBES: Size Matters On Valentine's Day

MSN's new "Everyday Web" theme stresses personalized information and Web-based utilities such as Microsoft's Hotmail e-mail service, not mass-market content.

CNN: Thinking Smaller

They had hoped for a bigger crowd, "but a lot of the snowbirds weren't here yet, " said Janet Russo, 63, a retired postal clerk whose late husband carried mail in Medford, Mass.

WSJ: In Florida, These Retirees Deliver a First-Class Protest

Indeed, local politicians appear to be just coming around to e-mail as a means of mass communication.

ECONOMIST: Local newspapers in peril

In April, Jeremy Jaynes, considered among the world's top-ten spammers, got a nine-year prison sentence in America for using false e-mail addresses and aliases to send mass e-mails (though the sentence was suspended pending an appeal).

ECONOMIST: Opening Pandora’s inbox | The