On your course Web pages you can include an email link, using mailto:, for students to contact you, one of your assistants, or any email list, with questions or comments.
The mailto: is a URL scheme (like http: or ftp:) that specifies an email address. When a mailto: link is selected, the browser opens an email message window in which the reader can type a message and send it to the email address, which is automatically filled in with the address(es) in the mailto:.
The format is:
<a href="mailto:username@hostname">username@hostname</a>
The following format provides a specific identification of to whom the email is being sent:
Questions or comments to <a href="mailto:f_l@mit.edu">Faculty Liaisons</a>.
The preceding appears on the Web page as:
Questions or comments to Faculty Liaisons.
Multiple email addresses, separated by commas, can be included with mailto: , e.g. mailto:f_l@mit.edu,themtoo@example.com
A more complicated mailto: could also set the subject for the mail message, or even give part of the body of the message, as shown below.
<a href="mailto:ccount@mit.edu,mailtome@example.com?cc=test@example.com&subject=This%20is%20the%20subject&body=and%20this%20is%20the%20body">Mail Me</a>
The preceding appears on the Web page as Mail Me. When clicked, the email window shows the addresses , subject line, and message automatically filled in.
Note: This may not work for all browsers or browser configurations.
Also note, an ampersand (&) in the mailto: must be written as & for the file to be valid HTML. This is because & is a special character in HTML, used for named entities (e.g. & for &, < for < and > for >).
For a detailed specification of more complicated formats, see The mailto URL scheme (RFC 2368).
The mailto: link can also be used in a FORM action.
Another use of mailto: is in the <HEAD> of a Web page to identify the page's creator, as follows:
<link rev="made" href="mailto:username@hostname">
In this example, rev defines a reverse relationship. A link from document A to document B with REV=relation expresses the same relationship as a link from B to A with REL=relation. REV=made is sometimes used to identify the document author, either the author's email address with a mailto URL, or a link to the author's home page.
In a word, email spam. The mailto: link is an excellent way of advertising your email address and making it convenient for people to reach you. It is so convenient, in fact, that a robot can do it, which "bulk" emailers will use to prepare a list of addresses to which to send unsolicited email.