GoFaxer Blog

The other day I was talking to a marketing department in South Carolina. I was trying to retrieve some marketing information, and I asked them if they’d be able to send me some data. They then said: “Do you mind if we send that through the mail?”

I hadn’t heard that question since the 90’s. I hadn’t even contemplated that I would need to wait for a week while the U.S. Postal Service, bless their hearts, brought me the typed pages.

I responded, “Well, I was hoping to get the info as soon as possible.” The marketing rep told me that they had an entire booklet put together and they didn’t have it in digital format. Now, if it were my business, we wouldn’t publish anything without having it in digital format. But I’m not running their business, and if they want to spend all that money on printing they’re welcome to.

But that didn’t change the fact that I wanted this data today. Call me a new man of the Millennium, but I like my info fast. So I asked them for the data to be faxed. Thankfully, we use email fax and I got the data in my email inbox within the hour, the way I like it.

Email has been around longer than I thought. It predates the Internet. Wikipedia states:

“MIT first demonstrated the Compatible Time-Sharing System (CTSS) in 1961.[29] It allowed multiple users to log into the IBM 7094[30] from remote dial-up terminals, and to store files online on disk. This new ability encouraged users to share information in new ways. E-mail started in 1965 as a way for multiple users of a time-sharing mainframe computer to communicate.”

But it wasn’t until the Internet was invented that email became a household name. Now it’s become the standard for most communications. Frankly, I’m surprised the postal service is still in business.

Another technology that developed but became more standard in use about a decade prior to email and the Internet was fax technology. It was the primary method of sending information over long distances by the early 90’s. I can remember my father wondering whether it would be necessary for us to get a fax machine for our home. It was becoming that important as a mode of communication.

But then email took over and homes ceased to have the need for this technology. But with a great majority of the business world still using fax, companies were required to maintain a fax machine, with all of it’s associated costs, expenses, and hassles. Email fax was the solution to this issue. Now you can send faxes through the internet, in the form of an email. Both technologies have merged.

You were shocked by that title, weren’t you? Yes. It’s true. Internet fax saves the lives . . . of trees. I know that’s less exciting. But trees play an important part in our world’s ecosystem. They provide the world with oxygen; You remember learning about photosynthesis in elementary school. The fact of the matter is that we’d all DIE without trees. And trees are dying. You can do the math.

Given the growing incidence of offices, cubicles, and people with the word “manager’ in their title, the world was on the brink of disaster several years ago due to the mass murdering of trees to send memos and faxes to one another.

Faxes were the worst offender. Not only did you have to print up the copy of the document on your end, but you also required your recipient to print a copy on their end. It was double the paper for one purpose. Trees mourned at this growing insurgency against their noble and long respected race.

Fortunately, the holocaust would be brought to light. The movement to save the world is now commonly known as Internet fax. Now we no longer must destroy innocent trees to send a copy of our driver’s license to the DMV.

This might seem unimportant to those of you dreaming of living in the desert. But trees are sleeping well at night knowing that the world has accepted a paperless office.

Every large business has started small, probably in someone’s living room or garage. But now the new entrepreneurial start-up location of choice is the local coffee shop with free Internet. You can sit, visit, drink your daily dose of caffeine, or have a scone. And you can start your brilliant new business idea. That’s right, now it may be coffee, but some day it will be champagne if your ideas and work ethic are sound.

But is it really possible to start an actual business without some sort of office. I mean, as soon as you get customers, won’t they find out just how small time you are? What if they want to send you a fax?

Fax to email by GoFaxer is the solution for the coffee shop office. All of your faxes can be sent and received via email. On the other end, if they have a traditional fax machine they’ll receive the document just as if you had a fax machine yourself. And you can receive their fax in your email inbox.

Technology has really become the boon to small time business owners dreaming of becoming big time. The American dream is certainly not dead with Internet fax technology and regular cups of coffee to keep you awake.

Did you know that the first fax machine was invented over 150 years ago? That’s right. The year was 1843 to be exact. The inventor was a Scotsman by the name of Alexander Bain as outlined by Wikipedia:

“He used his knowledge of electric clock pendulums to produce a back-and-forth line-by-line scanning mechanism.”

At the Great Exhibition of 1851 in London, Frederick Bakewell made several improvements on the design and demonstrated it.

In 1861 the first machine was sold to Giovanni Caseli. I’m not quite sure who he was communicating with since he owned the only one, but hurrah for science.

Now remember, that all of these inventions were occurring before the invention of the telephone.

In 1924 Richard H. Ranger invented a wireless photoradiogram, otherwise known as a transoceanic radio facsimile. With this device the first photo picture was sent from New York to London. The subject of that picture was the President of the United States, Calvin Coolidge.

In 1929 came the Hellscreiber by Rudolf Hell.

The first fax machine as we know it was the Exxon Quip which was introduced in the mid-1970’s.

In the early nineties the Internet was invented and by the end of the decade email was the new standard for sending information quickly and electronically. Hence the invention of Internet fax, a merging of the two technologies, which allows companies to send or receive faxes through their email.

We’ve come a long way baby!

I found a recent Ezine Article by Brandi Cummings that taught me something interesting about email fax technology. Apparently the service was first introduced as a solution for small businesses that couldn’t afford both the expense and hassle of a fax machine and other standard office supplies. Cummings says:

It was developed and marketed as an affordable and convenient solution for people who needed to send and receive faxes on the go or from a small office without the need for bulky equipment and recurring costs for toner, paper and repairs.

But the overwhelming convenience of the service has made it an attractive option for all businesses, both large and small. Whether your business is a Fortune 500 company, or a small start-up from your basement, a good Internet fax service like GoFaxer is a must have.

You can send faxes through the Internet, freeing up your phone lines, and giving you a digital record of every transaction of information. This type of technology is truly the future of all businesses, so if you’re holding off on it for any reason, now is the time for action. Your fax machine will not miss you and you will not miss your fax machine.

Sending a fax through email is very easy using an email fax service like GoFaxer. It is much like sending an email. The only difference is that instead of sending the email to another email account, you would enter a fax number. There is also a place to enter your cover letter.

On the receivers end, they will receive a fax in the exact same way that they would have received it from a standard fax machine. The cover letter and document will print up, just like normal.

Receiving a fax through email is just as easy. You can go to your email account and inbox, where you will receive your fax in email form. The fax will be an attachment to the email. This can be opened as a PDF file.

At a time when technology is constantly shifting and changing, email fax technology is a breath of fresh air. It allows one to use an older and established technology, which has become a mandatory element of doing business, while employing newer technology that might be more convenient.

Anyone who’s used a service like GoFaxer will never want to go back. When you factor in the savings in cost, the decision becomes a no-brainer. You will use internet fax as long as your company is in business.

I recently found an article online by Elizabeth Morgan that seemed totally out of date given the popularity of fax to email services.

She answers the question: What is a fax machine? Her answer:

“A fax machine, short for facsimile machine, basically sends and receives reproductions of a document through a telephone line.”

Of course, when this technology first came into use some 30 years ago, it was seen as an amazing new convenience. You could send someone a document across the world in minutes. But now, with the overwhelming dominance of email, fax technology can seem a bit quaint. But as Morgan suggests, “the fax machine is still essential in any office for instantaneous sharing of documents such as proofs, contracts and other documents.”

Consequently, innovative new businesses will want the convenience of their email while also being able to have a fax service. This is why fax to email services like GoFaxer are so popular. They allow you to be an internet based business, while being able to employ older technologies like fax.

Modern companies don’t even need to ask, “What’s a fax machine?” They don’t have to ask themselves whether to buy an inkjet fax machine or invest in a laser fax. The issue becomes mute with Internet fax.

Yesterday I was at the doctor’s office. They were doing a series of tests. The nurse jotted down the results of those tests on my paper work. When the doctor came to the waiting room to discuss the results of the tests he couldn’t find where they were written. He looked all over and finally discovered a percentage written and circled on my bill. He started laughing, asked me which nurse had written it on the report. He left the room. I could hear him in his main office outside teasing the nurse. All of the other nurses laughed.

I have no doubt that at some point that form was to be faxed to my insurance company. I’m glad that the doctor noticed this inaccuracy before it got sent. If that had been faxed to my insurance company I would have received a strange bill.

This made me realize the importance of checking all fax cover sheets, and faxed documents carefully before we send them. Even when you use fax to email services, it’s easy to do it quickly and not pay attention to the little details. So if you work in a doctor’s office, or are simply sending important business info, make sure your fax paper work is all inline before you hit the send button.

One of my most negative first work experiences was learning how to use a fax machine.  I knew from the moment that I came into contact with that machine we would not be friends.  Do I put the page upside down or right side up?  Does the writing on the sheet need to face me or face the machine?  What number do I dial?  Do I have to dial 9 first?

And then when I did seem to get it right according to the long list of instructions posted on a white piece of paper above, I had to wait while it called the number.  Sometimes it would take several minutes to go through.

You can imagine my excitement when I realized that I no longer had to use that rotten machine anymore.  In my office I use fax to email, which in my opinion is one of the more important innovations in modern technology.  Now my computer is my fax machine, which I most definitely prefer.

I can do it from my seat.  No more waiting for the phone to ring.  It’s fast, convenient, and I don’t have to remember which side of the paper goes in first.  Yay!