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AP Photo/Patrick Semansky

This email tool wants to make your messages sound more confident

Just Not Sorry aims to get rid of words that make a sender sound less confident like “I think”, “just”, and “sorry”.

A NEW PLUGIN for Google Chrome is designed to highlight words that undermine a person’s message on email.

Just Not Sorry scans your email draft and highlights words like “just”, “sorry”, and “I think”, which make the sender sound less confident.

The way words are highlighted is similar to how a spelling error is marked, but with a slightly different colour to differentiate between the two.

The plugin was created by software developers Cyrus Innovation as part of the Female Founder Initiative.

According to one of its creator Tami Reiss, they decided to make it after she noticed a group of women “softening their speech in situations that called for directness and leadership”.

“When someone uses one of these qualifiers, it minimizes others confidence in their ideas”, explains Reiss in a Medium post. ”Qualifiers hint to the reader that you don’t have faith in what you’re saying. The last thing you need is to seem unsure of yourself”.

Just not sorry Just not sorry / Chrome Web Store Just not sorry / Chrome Web Store / Chrome Web Store

We’re found in our beta tests that not only does this reduce the use of these terms in email, but it builds mindfulness to avoid them in all written and verbal communication.

Since the plugin was released last week, the group set an initial target of 10,000 downloads by the new year. It reached that target on the second day and had been downloaded nearly 30,000 times.

The group has also made the tool open-source, allowing other users to add new words or phrases that might undermine a message.

Read: It looks like the next iPhone will ditch the headphone jack entirely >

Read: The man who wrote Windows Solitaire was an intern who never made royalties from it >

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9 Comments
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Elizabeth Taaffe
    Favourite Elizabeth Taaffe
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    Oct 6th 2011, 2:42 AM

    RIP Steve. You once said ‘your time is limited. Don’t waste it living someone else’s life’. No one can deny you led an extraordinary life and changed the world in your own way.

    99
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    Mute
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    Oct 6th 2011, 4:07 AM

    rip, gone too soon.

    57
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    Mute Tony Stanley
    Favourite Tony Stanley
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    Oct 6th 2011, 4:38 AM

    LEGEND!!!!

    47
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    Mute Julian King
    Favourite Julian King
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    Oct 6th 2011, 7:15 AM

    I still have an Apple II, my dad fixed one for someone back in the early 80′s and he never collected it, I’ve been gaming since.

    RIP

    40
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    Mute John Murray
    Favourite John Murray
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    Oct 6th 2011, 7:08 AM

    RIP Steo!

    27
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    Mute Kelly McCarthy
    Favourite Kelly McCarthy
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    Oct 6th 2011, 7:23 AM

    The PC got the better of him in the end. (pancreatic cancer)

    26
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    Mute Eamonn Fallon
    Favourite Eamonn Fallon
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    Oct 6th 2011, 8:50 AM

    Oh for fuck sake!

    23
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    Mute Graham Keogh
    Favourite Graham Keogh
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    Oct 6th 2011, 9:37 AM

    Some people just have no respect at all.

    21
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    Mute Mata Mata
    Favourite Mata Mata
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    Oct 6th 2011, 7:23 AM

    MS stifled the development of software and hardware a big thank you to Steve we will miss you lots !

    12
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    Mute Cpm
    Favourite Cpm
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    Oct 6th 2011, 7:14 AM

    An arrogant ass, but RIP regardless.

    10
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    Mute Cpm
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    Oct 6th 2011, 9:47 AM

    What is with all the thumbs down?

    I realise it’s not good to speak ill of the dead, but I’m speaking of the truth. So far this morning I’ve heard two interviews in total, one described him as ‘acerbic’ the other described his as ‘difficult to work with.’

    He may have made pretty products but he wasn’t the deity some of you seem to think he was. He was an arrogant, aggressive and obsessive man.

    While I wouldn’t wish pancreatic (or any other form of) cancer on my worst enemy, I’m certainly not going to sugar-coat him and make him out to be something he wasn’t – you’ll find a lot more people who knew him on a pernoal level, and disliked him, than liked him.

    7
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    Mute Cormac
    Favourite Cormac
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    Oct 6th 2011, 1:30 PM

    “The reasonable man adapts himself to the world. The unreasonable man persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore, all progress depends on the unreasonable man.” –George Bernard Shaw

    10
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    Mute Rachel Walsh Howe
    Favourite Rachel Walsh Howe
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    Oct 6th 2011, 11:53 AM

    Wonder how many people found out he passed on Apple products??? What a legacy to leave.RIP

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    Mute Natasha Hoare
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    Oct 6th 2011, 11:24 AM

    Rip Steve.

    5
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    Mute Jonathan Dickson
    Favourite Jonathan Dickson
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    Oct 6th 2011, 5:01 PM

    Anyone know how a mock turtleneck differs from a turtleneck?

    4
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    Mute Martin Thomas
    Favourite Martin Thomas
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    Oct 8th 2011, 2:05 AM

    Lot of errors in this. From ap too. Tut tut.

    1
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