New Google Labs App Lets You Recall E-Mails
I’m a known advocate for the Google Labs apps, except of course when they fail. But there is a reason – it’s because the development team actually responds to the needs of their users.
This new app announced today proves my point. We have all sent e-mails we wish we hadn’t, whether it was a typo or a forgotten attachment. For some of my peers it’s because they were writing late at night while considerably inebriated.
Undo Send will let you recall this email, hopefully before they receiver reads it.
But there are critics of the new app who state that it doesn’t really undo the e-mail, it just keeps in in cue for 5 secs – not nearly enough time, especially for the inebriated reflex-impaired. Alternative e-mail systems with better features, like Zoho, do exist.
But what Google has demonstrated is that they will continually improve their product – and that gives me hope.
There’s even the new Gmail Offline app (requires Gears) that could potentially keep my world turning when everyone else is standing still.
You have been able to do this in Outlook for years now, by following this procedure:
http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/microsoft-office/use-outlook-rules-to-prevent-oh-no-after-sending-emails/
Of course, but many of us use Gmail on the go – on our desktop, laptop, iPhone/Blackberry, and public terminals.
As far as I know you can only do a download on Outlook on only one of these. It definitely won’t help you when you’re using a public computer.
For the person on the go, remote servers are still the best solution.