The auto-complete function of Gmail has been acting up lately, causing certain users to send emails to the wrong people.
Gmail has a feature that auto-suggests contacts as the user types out a name or an email address. However, this feature recently seems to have a bug.
The feature usually auto-completes the name or email address being typed out to the most frequent contact of the user. However, with the bug, the names or email addresses being auto-completed are the ones among the less frequently used contacts.
Users that are in a hurry to send out emails may only see that they typed in the wrong person to receive the message once it is already too late and the email has been sent out.
Fred Wilson, a venture capitalist in New York City, posted an article online about the issue, claiming that he received several emails that were clearly not intended for him.
"Sending emails to the wrong people is embarrassing and potentially much worse," Wilson wrote about the issue, adding that the prevention of sending what could be confidential information to the wrong people is just as important with Google's other services such as Google Docs.
The issue, according to Wilson, is particularly uncharacteristic of Google because the company and its services has previously been very good at determining who the users usually send certain things to, with notifications such as those found in Google Docs that alert the user when a document is being sent outside a certain domain.
For Gmail, Wilson suggests that the email service should have a notification of when an email is being sent to a person that is usually not included in a group of people being sent to, or if a certain file is being sent to a person that the user usually does not send that kind of file to.
Wilson is not the only one complaining about the issue, as several people have expressed their frustrations over the bug through Twitter.
The issue does not look like it is affecting all Gmail users. However, the public outcry on Twitter means that it is also not a problem that only affects a handful of people.
"We're aware of an issue with Gmail and auto-complete and are currently investigating. Apologies for any inconvenience," Google tweeted through its official Gmail account on Twitter, acknowledging the presence of the issue but issuing no further details on what caused the problem and when it can be expected to be fixed.
