This is an article I found that addresses one of the most interesting, and I think practical, new additions to gmail. According to the writer, Google has been putting applications into gmail for about a year that, for lack of a better phrase "save you from yourself". These applications attempt to insure that the mail being sent is how the user intended it.
For instance, there is a feature that searches for the word attachment in the email and checks to see if there is actually a document attached. There is another feature that prohibits people from sending drunk emails. I am not sure how many people actually do send drunk emails... perhaps a feature the prevented drunk phone calls or texts might be better used. Nevertheless, if a person tries to send an email at the early hours of the morning gmail has them solve a simple math problem first. While, it sounds like these feature might be somewhat annoying there is of course a way to deactivate them.
However, the newest feature is the one that I find to be most helpful and intriguing, the undo function. This feature allows the user to unsend an email up to 5 seconds after it has sent. I can remember countless times when I have sent an email and then realized that I misspelled a word or typed in a wrong phone number. The undo function is a great idea and I am surprised that no one thought of it earlier. However, if there was one change I would make it would be to give a larger window than 5 seconds. Google officials say that there is an option to increase the interval to 10 seconds, but I still think that is a little short. As the author suggests it would be nice if gmail put the emails into an outbox queue and held them there for a minute or two. Gmail officials did also say that they might increase the interval depending on feedback from users, but they did not want to make it too long so as to delay to email substantially. Regardless of whether or not they choose to increase the interval I still think it is a great feature and another indication of how Google is on the cutting edge of enhancing applications that we normally take advantage of like email, web browsers, and word processors.
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I agree that 5-10 seconds doesn't sound like enough time to remember you made a typo or some other mistake. A tool like that could help cut down on e-mail clutter. I frequently get an e-mail from someone, only to get one or two follow-up e-mails a couple minutes later because that person forgot to add something.
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