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Gmail Feature Saves E-Mail Embarrassment

Posted on: Wednesday, 14 October 2009, 07:05 CDT

On Tuesday, Google's Gmail Labs team introduced a new feature dubbed "Got the wrong Bob?" to help users catch their embarrassing e-mail faux pas before they are sent to the wrong recipient in a group message.

The free Web-based e-mail service launched the feature as a preemptive warning for people who appear to be ready to accidentally send a Gmail message to an unintended recipient, according to Google engineers Ari Leichtberg and Yossi Matias.

In a joint blog post, they asked, "When's the last time you got an email from a stranger asking, 'Are you sure you meant to send this to me?' and promptly realized that you didn't?."

"Sometimes these little mistakes are actually quite painful. Hate mail about your boss to your boss? Personal info to some random guy named Bob instead of Bob the HR rep? Doh!"

The feature can be activated by modifying Gmail Settings. The software has the ability to recognize groups of people most often communicated with via email by Gmail users, and then let them know when they are including someone out of the ordinary.

"Gmail will try to identify when you've accidentally included the wrong person, before it's too late," the engineers said.

Google invites users to put the feature to the test by faking a blunder by composing a message to two of three people they want to e-mail. Start typing the third member of the group, but then auto-complete on the wrong name.

The Gmail Labs team also switched the name of its "Suggest more recipients" feature to "Don't forget Bob," to join “Got the wrong Bob?”.

"Got the wrong Bob" comes more than a year after Gmail Labs introduced Mail Goggles, which prompts users who send an e-mail between 10 p.m. and 4 a.m. on a weekend night to answer math problems in order to check their coherence. The idea is that an e-mailer too tired or too drunk to solve simple math problems probably would appreciate being rescued from sending a potentially regrettable message.

However, the feature is not perfect. It will not protect users from sending an e-mail to just two recipients. If a user sends unpleasant mail to their boss instead of their confidant with the same first name, the Gmail team cannot be accept responsibility. That is what the Gmail Labs’ "Undo Send" feature is designed to do by retrieving freshly sent email messages.

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Source: RedOrbit Staff & Wire Reports

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