My address book has reached a critical mass whereby a significant percentage of the names are similar, and some are the same.
Why does that matter?
My propensity to select the wrong person and email address has gone up significantly in the past year. I’ve even noticed it among colleagues, industry peers and friends — and people I don’t even know.
Such user error is usually harmless and inconvenient. But sometimes it is potentially damaging, such as when communicating confidential or sensitive information in either work or professional settings. Indeed, I’ve been accidentally sent emails detailing not-yet-public M&A activity, juicy office gossip of other companies, and more. That’s why I triple-check my recipients when emailing anything of great consequence.
But for the massive volume of email we’re all expected to process and publish, mistakes become more likely.
We all have an abundance of automation tools to create and consume more content with more people, but we’re still lacking filtering tools to reduce the noise we create and ensure we reach the right people.
Filling this gap means starting with email services — at once the most critical and spammy communications platforms.
If you agree, go check out my column at MediaPost, where I detailed feature requests for my preferred email provider, Gmail.
Have you ever emailed the wrong person?
Be honest.
Sure you have.
That why I check my addresses twice, often three times 🙂