Email Evolution: The "Unsend"

Font size...Check

Font color, bold, italicize...Of Course

Undo...For Sure

Hyperlinks, lists, bullets...Why Not

spell check...STANDARD


Sending a letter has come a long way since the days when you had to lick a stamp and envelope.  Email has made all of us perfect spellers and cured even the most illegible handwriting.  But even with all of these great advances, email still lacks one small but greatly important feature.  Lets call it the "unsend" button (and funny enough, I just got the red squiggly line I depend on to correct my atrocious spelling.  I guess "unsend" isn't a real word...YET.)  I'm sure everyone has experienced the sickening feeling that comes with a preemptive push of the send button.  It can come from forgetting to include an attachment, noticing a misspelled word, or even being way too honest after a couple glasses of wine.  But whatever the reason, the technology to unsend an email, if and only if the recipient has not opened it should be available.

Google has made a small step in the right direction with a 20 second undo window...http://gmailblog.blogspot.com/2009/03/new-in-labs-undo-send.html

But I need more.