Email marketing technique or interesting mistake?

I received an email from Google the other day. It was a pitch on how to make my AdWords campaigns more effective. Normally, when Google messages, you read it. But what caught me off guard was how the message was delivered.

If you think about your inbox, all of your messages are lined up nice and neat, all justified to the left hand column separator. But the Google email had a blank space before the first letter in the “Subject” line. It immediately caught my eye and was the first message I clicked on.

Either way, it worked.

I’ll test this on email lists I manage — since I know our typical open rate, I’m curious if this tactic creates a lift.

What do you think?