123 Poof! email
The idea of having an expiry date on emails has always appealed to me. A couple of years ago I built a proof of concept email delivery system which would let me do exactly that. The message content of the email was pulled from a server. So after sending an email, the content could be changed or deleted. This wasn’t a perfect solution since only the email content would be deleted and not the entire email. It also allowed me to check whether or not the message was read and at what time.
One of the most common uses for this expiring email for me was to send out an invitation for a meeting later in the day. If there was no response by a set period of time, the email was retracted or changed to a later date. It’s also great for progress reports. Just one email can be sent out which can be reopened several times throughout the week/ month, each time with new up to date content from the server. It’s a significant shift in how people interact with their email. Emails become portals to information. This however, then requires a feature to let them take static snapshots which can be saved and a marker on the email to indicate when new content is available. Features which could only be implemented by the email application.
To me, the ultimate email solution would allow me to track and control forwarded emails. I could preset the email rules to limit the forwards to internal office use or to a preset group of individuals. I’d also be able to see the audience reach and how long into the future the message gets passed along. And of course, I could always update the content.
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