Viral emails were first conceived by companies wishing to gain new customers in a cheap and easy manner. With the advent of faster Internet connections companies found that they were able to be more creative with email campaigns they sent to both prospective customers, and existing customers.

Companies found that if they created a particularly good, funny or interesting marketing plan the people that they sent it would forward it on to people they knew, who in turn would themselves forward it on again. Thus these campaigns spread across the Internet in a similar fashion to viruses, being sent from email inbox to email inbox. Hence why the term viral email was born!

These days it is not just companies that send out viral emails, when someone creates a particularly funny video, joke, animation or game these also get spread across the Internet in a similarly contageous way.

This site aims to bring you the best of the viral emails which have been bounced from inbox to inbox in one huge searchable archive, so you can find any that didn't infect your inbox.