March 23, 2009 4:35 PM

Google's "Oh, Shoot" Button

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CBSNews
(CBS)  Google is releasing a new feature that lets you take back e-mails you wish you hadn't sent.

CNET-TV Senior Editor Natali Del Conte discussed Google's "undo send" feature, with Early Show co-anchors Maggie Rodriguez and Harry Smith.

"It's called 'undo send.' It's a button. But internally Google employees call it the 'Oh, shoot' button. To prove how much it's needed, we found some horror stories," Del Conte explained.

  • "I was actually e-mailing my boyfriend, but I actually sent it to my mom by accident. Yeah, you know, I kind of got in trouble for that," said Paige Murray.

  • "It really sucks because you can't take it back. And once you send it, that's it," said Thurman Hargrave.

  • "In the heat of the moment, you kind of click send before you really think about it. Yes, I would love to unsend some messages," said Gina Pantina.

    "With this new feature you only have five seconds to unsend an e-mail after you push send. Google did tests and found that five seconds was enough to realize you accidentally replied to all or e-mailed the wrong person or perhaps did not want to confess your love to someone after all," Del Conte said.

    Del Conte demonstrated how to enable the greatly needed feature, which could save many from getting in trouble when they click send.

    For more of this story, click the Play button below:



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    Add a Comment
    by cbory4 March 25, 2009 7:57 AM EDT
    CBS Early Morning Show features a lot of great stories. Unfortunatey, they rush through all of them and there is never enough informative content. It's very discouraging. Sometimes less is more: less segments with more complete information, please! Thank you for listening!
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