Wednesday, July 1, 2009

Fuzzmail’s a weird little mailing gimic you might enjoy

OUTLOOKPOWER SITE OF THE MONTH

By David Gewirtz

In this month's OutlookPower Site of the Month, we're featuring a very strange little site, fuzzmail.org.

To be honest, we're not really sure why you'd want to use it on a regular basis, but it's a fun place to visit -- and if you're into emailverite, this site's probably for you.

Here's how it works. You go to fuzzmail.org and type in a message, which is what I'm doing right now. As you type, the site records your keystrokes (all of them), the timing of each keypress, and all the deletions you make. I made a few typing errors in this paragraph, for example.

Then, when you send your message, the recipient can see every key you typed, every edit you made, and even the timing of your typing.

This can be funny, boring, or slightly strange, but it's fun in any case. For example, you could start typing something like, "You bastard" but change your mind and instead type "Dear Friend". When played back, you could see how that looked, showing how your train of thought changed as you typed.

So there it is. Go visit fuzzmail and try it out. You can also look at this article, which we typed while using Fuzzmail.

One problem: if what you type exceeds the field size, you'll no longer see the fuzz.