Tag Archives: email

Is it really the end of email?

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According to this Wall Street Journal article it is. It says people are becoming so used to communicating through Twitter and FaceBook (soon to be joined by Google Wave), but I think it is like the proverbial "jumping the gun". Of course I’m not denying that you can communicate faster using Twitter and FaceBook and some things you don’t even have to communicate through emails because you have already posted an update, there is nothing like "we’re always connected". I, for example, am not. Today I haven’t checked my Twitter and FaceBook streams simply because I was too busy working and replying to important email messages. If you are always connected one thing or the other keeps disturbing you and you cannot focus on work. It’s BS when people say they’re more productive when they are constantly checking Twitter and FaceBook updates and posting responses.

Of course you can get constant email updates if you’re using some sort of notifier (I sometimes use Gmail notifier or GoogleTalk to get instant email notifications) but it’s not like Twitter and FaceBook. When I’m in work mode and when I’m waiting for client response I’m not interested in knowing what sort of coffee you’re having or what’s the latest political gaffe the government is committing (I’m not saying these things are unimportant).

People immediately started discounting blogs when Twitter and FaceBook caught on but such a trend was obvious. It is so easy to post small messages and amusing links on social networking websites but writing a blog post on a continuous basis is difficult. The popularity of blogs hasn’t diminished, it’s just that fewer people are trying their hands at blogging because it’s easier to share thoughts on Twitter and FaceBook.

The problem with Twitter and FaceBook is that they are not as personal as an email. Things that you used to share with a select few are shared by everybody following you or befreinding you unless you take extra pains to exclude some people. In fact, this is the big difference in email and social networking apps: in email you have to include people if you want to communicate with them. On Twitter and FaceBook you have to exclude them — physically — if you don’t want to communicate with them. They’re more public. Email is private, and it is not going to go away easily. May be the form will change, but it’s here to stay for at least a few more years.

In Gmail now you can undo a message you’ve just sent

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Ever regretted sending that message?  Sometimes you send a message to a wrong person and sometimes in the heat of the moment you say something that you regret immediately after clicking “send”. There was a time when a message sent via Gmail (or rather any other web based email service) was like a bullet you’ve just fired; just like you cannot stop the bullet you’ve fired, you couldn’t stop the message you had sent.

Well, if the divine realization of “this shouldn’t have been sent” hits you within 5 seconds, in Gmail now you can undo a message that you have just sent. This may save you a lot of heartache (or broken bones for those who prefer to live on the edge) in the long as as well as short term.

If you activate a feature in Gmail, Gmail will hold your e-mail (this sounds like a rhyming poem) for 5 seconds so that you get enough chance to stop it. Just go to Settings and then the Labs tab. Scroll down until you come to this section:

gmail-undo

 

 

 

Simply click Enable and save the setting. From now onwards, whenever the message “Your message has been sent” appears, you will also notice an Indo button.