Week 8 : Exercise 2 : Thing 1 - Fuzzmail

Fuzzmail came in 3rd in the "Fun Stuff" category of the Web 2.0 Awards.

Fuzzmail was fun - I sent an email to my partner, then stood behind her as she read it. The idea behind Fuzzmail is that when the recipient of your email receives their message, they don't read it in a static way - line by line - but rather see the message as you typed it, errors, second-thoughts and all.

It's a nice idea, to see how someone was thinking, then adjusting when they composed your email, but as usual, I do have some caveats, just to be a downer:

Caveat 1: Don't use this method to send a message to anyone who you need to take you seriously. A break-up email for instance, would not go down well.* But maybe you just shouldn't use email for breaking up with someone anyway.

Caveat 2: It would be infinitely better if the receiver could view the message inside his or her own mail program/web-app. This probably falls to the mail program/web-app people, rather than the makers of Fuzzmail, but it lessens the impact of the experience when you have to leave your mail in order to receive it.

But really - for what it does, I quite like Fuzzmail, although I'm not sure of any way that it could work in a library application


*In other instances though, this method actually has the ability to convey more emotion than a regular email - because the receiver is getting to see the way you are thinking and trying to convey your message.