Are five seconds enough to undo e-mail?

While the new feature in Gmail that allows you to 'unsend' a message may be cool, the fact that it is there only for five seconds means that the user gets too little time to reconsider

There is this joke about a guy who wanted a divorce. He stood in the dock and the judge asked him why he married the woman in the first place. 'Because of her habit of telling me to my face what she thinks of me', he said. When the judge asked him why he wanted a divorce, he pointed out, 'For the same reason.'

Similarly, if one were to ask us what is the best thing about mail, the answer will be that it gives us the convenience of sending any message to anybodyu2014and if you are using an office Internet connection to access a Web mail system like Yahoo or Gmail, then it is fully freeu2014and in some ways, this is the problem. You end up sending the wrong message to the wrong people, writing a nasty mail to your boss when drunk, or send a message to your girlfriend addressing it as 'To dearest Nita' while her name is actually Geeta.

Oops!

All of us have such 'oops' moments in our life, and Google, as usual, has come to our rescue. Some time ago, Gmail got a feature that would ask you questions if you sent mail at a particular time, which you had to choose so, if you are generally sloshed on Friday nights, this feature could be useful for you. Now, they have come up with a new feature that works will all mails.

Actually, what Google has done is simple. It doesn't send a mail for five seconds, and if in this time you want to undo the message, then you can do it. But remember, you have just five seconds when the sixth second strikes, the message gets sent and cannot be retrieved. So if the mail was a stinker to your company president, well, expect to see a pink slip soon.

Good old days

There is always a temptation to compare new technology to days when said technology didn't exist. In the days of the courier, you could, if you sent a nasty mail by post, call up the person on the phone and apologise even before he sees your snail mail. You could also request him to tear up the letter without reading it, and who knows, maybe the receiver of your poison-pen note would comply.

But even in the old days, you could get into trouble for saying things verbally. In fact, a decade ago, when e-mail was becoming popular, many people used to say that one advantage of e-mail is that you can compose mail at leisure and send it only if you are sure that you want to send it.

So, while the 'oops button' in Gmail is definitely a nice feature, don't always bet on it because five seconds just doesn't cut it.

Four tips for sending an e-mail
>>First of all, compose yourself before composing an e-mail
>>Verify that the e-mail ID of the person is correct
>>If you want to send a nasty note, first compose it in a word processor and save it to disk. Send it 24 hours later if you are still sure that it needs to be sent
>>While e-mail is very convenient, it is not always the best medium when it comes to having a heated debate. Meet in person or use the phone to resolve complex issues

QUICK TAKE
>>Gmail has introduced a new feature
>>This feature means that your mail doesn't get for five seconds, during which time you can recall it
>>But when the sixth second dawns, the mail is irrevocably sent