My other spare set of keys...

We have all been there, hunched over our computers sending personal or professional emails, when we misfire and hit send.

The email you’ve been stewing over, looking to perfect, aching to find the right words for is now out there in the ether to be read and scorned by its recipient.  Or perhaps you forgot an attachment.  Or perhaps the email was a mental health exercise and you were never planning on sending that email to begin with.  Whatever the case, now Gmail allows you five seconds to change your mind and un-send that contentious email.

Now, this is great, and I’m thrilled that it finally exists, but doesn’t AOL Mail let you un-send an email until the recipient’s actually opened it?  If it doesn’t, then I have a lot of false memories from middle school where boys never got emails about crushes I had on them.

What’s interesting about this, though, is that the new feature isn’t being met with open arms, but rather contention from its users.  Some of the critiques have been:

• Why can’t I set the amount of time I want to have before I unsend a message?  (ed.  Um, I think that’s what the Drafts folder is for, no?)
• Why can’t I just delete my email if the recipient hasn’t opened it yet? (ed. Could be something to that, but not every mail client is gmail, so you can’t necessarily go removing information from other servers at your own discretion.)
• Why not just enable Gmail’s Mail Goggles feature to buy your time? (ed. I actually think this is a fine solution for someone that chronically sends out foolish emails, but some people also can’t do simple math for their life, and might find that they’re too greatly hindered…)
• What if I’m too foolish to not realize immediately that I didn’t want to send that email?  How is Google going to fix that? (ed. It’s not Google or Gmail’s responsibility to make sure you email appropriately.  These 5 seconds are a gift.)

What I find most interesting is that Google is releasing, and getting coverage for releasing, a feature that is readily available on a number of other mail clients.  It’s being applauded for doing something that should have been an initial feature (much like the Copy/Paste function on an iPhone.  To wait for Gen 3 is absurd….).  

With respect to Public Relations, Google seems to be unable to do any wrong.  Finding an easy way to solve a problem that shouldn’t have ever been a problem should not be getting the kudos it is or front page coverage on CNN.com.  At least in this publicist’s opinion…

Jackie for AMP3pr.com

@JackieBrook