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Google Adds Gaffe-Avoiding Lab To Gmail

Another day, another new Lab for Google's Gmail. This one handily prevents you from accidentally sending an email to the wrong Tom, Dick, or Harry (which, admittedly, I have done).

This has happened to me more than once. You're composing an email in a hurry. As you type in email addresses, Gmail auto-suggests recipients as you go. Seeing a familiar first name, you hit "Tab" to accept the suggestion and move on. Too bad you've just chosen to send an email to Bob Jones, not Bob Smith.

Hence the new Gmail Labs, called, appropriately enough, Got the Wrong Bob?

Once the Lab is enabled, Gmail will examine the group of people you are emailing, and will attempt to figure out if you've included the right set of people. It works in conjunction with another Google Lab, called "Suggest More Recipients" (which apparently Google has renamed to "Don't Forget About Bob").

If you regularly email Joe Joseph, Jane Janison and Paul Paulson -- all at the same @domain.com address -- Gmail will know that. If you address an email to Joe and Jane, but forget Paul, the Don't Forget About Bob Lab will make sure you add Paul to the email list. Further, with Got the Wrong Bob Lab enabled, it will make sure you send the email to Paul Paulson, and not Paul Peterson.

Long story short, enabling these two Gmail Labs just might help you avoid an embarrassing mistake by sending an email to the wrong person.

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