PawEng » Email

Google Wave

PawEng — Sat, 30 May 2009 01:02:04 +0000

The web is buzzing with the news that Google is coming out with Google Wave:

Google Wave: A Complete Guide by Mashable
Google Wave “Is What Email Would Look Like If It Were Invented Today” by Lifehacker
Could Google Wave Redefine Email and Web Communication? by Mashable
Google Wave: Google Tries to Reinvent Email by Read Write Web
Google Waves Goodbye to E-Mail, Welcomes Real-Time Communication by WebMonkey

Google Wave promises to revolutionize the way we communicate and collaborate online. It works in real-time. If someone else writes something, you see it immediately. Anything can be edited much like a wiki, and you can share files via waves. At any point you can play back the wave to see who did what. Finally, waves can be extended by third-party applications.

Google Wave will be available later this year.

Gmail adds ‘Undo Send’ Feature

PawEng — Sat, 21 Mar 2009 19:56:55 +0000

Gmail has added an “Undo Send” feature reports Wired, Lifehacker, and Mashable. The Official Gmail Blog explains that the “Undo Send” feature can be found in the Labs section of your Gmail account. Enable it, and you get five seconds after each time you send a message to undo the action.

Cc:Betty Organizes You Email

PawEng — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 00:40:18 +0000

The new company Cc:Betty presented their system for organizing your email. It is as simple as cc’ing betty@ccbetty.com, and Betty will organize your message and it’s contents for you.

Cc:Betty was presented today at DEMO. It has gotten a lot of press on the blogosphere:

Visit Cc:Betty, which is in beta right now.

How To Ditch Your Old Email Address

PawEng — Sat, 15 Nov 2008 03:02:03 +0000

Do you have an old email address that just isn’t cutting it anymore? Tired of having some juvenile email address like snazzydude@example.com or hotrod75@example.com? Or do you just want to ditch your AOL address? If so, then WIRED has an article for you. It is called Ditch Your Old Email Address, and it shows you just how easy can be.

Email Interruptions Take 64 Seconds to Recover From

PawEng — Sat, 13 Sep 2008 00:06:12 +0000

It takes on average 64 seconds to recover from an email interruption:

Another study, carried out last year, revealed that it takes an average of 64 seconds to recover your train of thought after interruption by email. This means that people who check their email every five minutes waste a whole working day – or 8.5 hours a week – figuring out what they were doing moments before. (From Mail Online)

Even though the study took place a while ago, it seems to be all over the news right now:

The original article is Case Study: Evaluating the Effect of Email Interruptions within the Workplace by Dr Thomas Jackson.

The Guardian article includes some tactics to prevent emails from wasting so much of your time. One of the tactics is to:

Use other tools. Twitter and instant messaging (IM) are both better for asking short questions of chosen groups. Wikis are better for collaborating on documents. Blogs are better for publishing information and having informal conversations.