Computers, Google, Webware, Web
Gmail Now Letting You Un-Send Regrettable E-Mails

Back in October 2008, Google brought Mail Goggles to its Gmail labs, a feature that required you to finish a series of math problems in an allotted amount of time before it let you send an e-mail. This way, if you got a little too happy at happy hour, you'd find a barrier between you and that lengthy e-mail to your ex. Call it EWI-prevention (E-Mailing While Intoxicated).
The problem with Mail Goggles is that it wasn't going to stop you from sending regrettable e-mails while you were sober -- and what happens if being drunk turns you into a math whiz? The ideal solution would be to give us less tactful users the chance to undo that sent message before anyone else reads it. If Microsoft Outlook had such a feature, it would have helped us last a bit longer at that last IT job we had.
Leave it to Google, though, to bring to life the greatest e-mail feature nobody ever knew they wanted. If you go into Gmail Labs (the beaker icon up top, or the Labs tab under settings), you can enable "undo send," which will hold any e-mail you send in a queue for five seconds before actually sending it on to the intended recipient. This brilliant little service gives you a chance to hit the "undo" link at the top any time during that five seconds and stop that message from going through.
This is quite the breakthrough for those of us prone to sending ill-advised, angry, swear-laden e-mails (of which you can see some of the most unfortunate examples in the gallery below). Thanks, Google. [From: Download Squad and CNET]


