DropSend and other similar services have been doing this forever. The only difference here is the marketing--this company is touting the ability to revoke read permissions on the attachments (which all its competitors allow as well) more than it touts the ability to send large files (which is what its competitors hype).
It is hard understand why a SAAS email attachment provider hypes security and privacy as its primary benefits; surely it is more secure to keep your attachments in-house and scrubbed out of outbound (through the firewall) emails. Even better, share them out on a network share that has full ACLs and automatic single-sign-on authentication.
From their site:
"BigString Corporation (OTCBB: BSGC) has created a revolutionary new email service that allows users to control their sent email. The Company’s BigString product is an email service for both individuals and businesses that is recallable and changeable. With a patent pending technology, BigString allows a user to easily send, recall, erase, self-destruct and modify an email after it has been sent."
Surely the ability to take back a sent document is only useful if everyone else agrees to play by the rules? The moment I cut-and-paste the doc, or find some way to download it, you're right back where you were before.
It's better than sending the bits in the actual email. If you can revoke access to the attachment immediately after sending it, that's an improvement.
I'm guessing ninety-something percent of mistaken emails with attachments are noticed within the first ten seconds after it's sent, so you could really use an undo button. So for that, it's a good solution.
Me, I have the opposite problem. I write emails and forget to include the attachment, which necessitates I immediately send another copy with the attachment. I swear I did that recently and the recipient's GMail account blocked the email and all others from my address. I guess that behavior runs afoul of their spam algorithms.
I suppose email "undo" is a useful feature. Not sure -- maybe it's one of those great ideas which looks a bit lame at first.
Gmail handles outgoing attachments really well. If you type text like "here's the file I promised" or "I've attached a file" it prompts you if you don't, in fact, attach a file.
It is hard understand why a SAAS email attachment provider hypes security and privacy as its primary benefits; surely it is more secure to keep your attachments in-house and scrubbed out of outbound (through the firewall) emails. Even better, share them out on a network share that has full ACLs and automatic single-sign-on authentication.