Have you ever sent a mail to someone who is NOT supposed to receive it, or sent an email that should never be written? If you did this via Microsoft Outlook or Outlook Express, chances are you will be able to recall the message if you are lucky. However, if you are using a web-based email account, there is no recall message function for your to retract the email.
Google has recently launched a little “alert check” for its web-based mail account, Gmail. This function, called Mail Goggles, will prompt the user to answer a few simple mathematical questions when the send button is hit. The rationale is that if you are alert enough to answer the questions correctly, then you are likely to be alert and therefore mindful of what you are doing.
This function is not activated for all emails to be sent out. It comes alive in the night time as well as during the weekend when it is deemed to be the most “drunken” or least alert time of the day for a person. You will need to manually enable this function for it to work.
This is as best a function available to help keep you in check that you are of a “sane” state of mind before sending an email you will later regret. However, I personally feel that it would be a lot more helpful if a web-based mail can inject functions such as recalling the message, as well as tracking on whether the message was delivered and read by the recipient. I love these functions on Microsoft Outlook and wish that they could be incorporated into our personal email accounts on the web too.
