BigString.com Is The Coolest Email In The World

Ask Darin Myman about an email that should never have been sent, and he likely will tell you about a friend who was caught cheating on his wife when she examined the contents of his sent email. Of course Darin himself, like almost everyone who uses email regularly, must have made his own email mistakes - perhaps a wrong attachment, a wrong email address (autofill is a convenience, but you really have to pay attention!), unintentional use of 'reply all', or indiscreet contents that might be regretted only nanoseconds after clicking the 'send' button. But even though his mistakes may not have experienced the same degree of consequences as his red-handed friend's, they were enough to inspire Darin to do something about the problem, and that is how he came up with the idea for BigString.

BigString Corporation (http://www.BigString.com) now offers BigString 3.0, a web-based email service that gives the user control over sent mail - even once the mail is delivered to the recipient. BigString.com webmail service is the only service that offers this. This type of feature is already familiar to users of certain email services, such as AOL mail. In AOL, however - as in any other mail system - this can only be done within the AOL network (i.e. if the recipient is also using an AOL address) and only if the email is not opened. However, the idea that you could reach out to a different server and snatch back your errant emails at any time, from any place, is a function that was not available until now.

The name 'BigString' deliberately evokes an image of a long string, attached to your sent emails, that you can pull on to yank back an email that you should never have sent. Of course this is a transparent process - composing and sending an email is just like doing so in, say, Yahoo Mail or Gmail, except that the sender can also choose different security options. Also like its well-known competitors, BigString 3.0 includes traditional email features, such as: Sticky Notes, Automatic Message Highlighting, Calendar, Advanced Message Sorting and Advanced Spam and Virus Filtering. Under the covers, though, it's actually more like sending out the end of the string, while you keep the email contents, retaining the ability to cut the string and remove access to any secure material from the outside world.

BigString has clearly given some thought to the various ways that this technology might be used. One option is to have an email 'self-destruct' (along with your choice of visual effects, such as a little bonfire) after a certain amount of time, or after having been read a certain number of times. Or, you can specify that the email is non-forwardable, non-printable, or non-savable. This can help ensure that the embarrassing video you sent to a friend doesn't end up posted on YouTube. You can make he email trackable, so you know if and when it been opened and forwarded. And most intriguing of all, you can edit mail after it has been sent, or substitute one attachment for another. This feature is especially useful for emails that have time-sensitive price quotes, business offers or dated legal material.