How many times have your emails gone unread? How often do people just ignore your emails, and then later claim that they never read that message you sent? Wouldn't it be great if you could know, for sure, if someone read an email that you sent? Well, now you can.

If you use Gmail, you can download the Streak extension for Chrome that tells you the minute someone reads the email that you sent. Creepy? Amazing? Just what you needed? Here's more.

Setting Up and Using Streak

To install the Streak extension, simply download it to your Chrome bar from the Streak website. Then, open up your Gmail account. If you use any other extensions, Streak may ask you to disable those extensions in order for Streak to work properly, but this is up to you (you can always ignore this request, and simply uninstall any extensions that cause problems later).

You will then have to enable all third-party cookies in order to use Streak. To do this, click on your Chrome settings tab in the upper right corner of your Chrome screen (it looks like three hotdogs). From there, you'll get a drop-down menu. Click on 'Tools,' 'Extensions,' and change your cookie settings to allow Streak only. Once that's done, log back into your Gmail.

You will see that Streak integrates with your Gmail right away. Streak lets you set up files and folders to organize your emails, and you can also create different categories. There's something else that Streak can do too...

I Spy!

Streak lets you view the actual location of a person you've just emailed. So, let's say that your friend claims to be at home working on a project, which is why they can't go out on Saturday night. You email them, see that the email was read, and also note that they are at a club. See how that works? Creepy, right?

The Streak team developed this extension as a tool for salespeople seeking to get leads and work with clients on certain problems and topics. But, this extension is likely to be used mostly by people that just want to see whether or not emails are read (and whether or not people are where they say that they are).

Free For Now

Streak is free for now while the extension is in beta mode. Company reps claim that Streak will always have some form of a free option, but those details haven't been worked out yet. Would you pay for this service? That's a question to certainly consider! It's also worth pointing out that Streak is not the only program of its kind on the market. There are other Gmail read receipt programs available, though Streak takes the process further than other options.

I'm finding this extension to be a bit creepy (and it might violate some tracking rights?). Recipients won't know if you are tracking emails sent or locations, which just adds to the creep factor here. So, if a friend just happens to bump into you when you said you'd be at home, they might be tracking you with Streak.

What do you think of this extension?