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I Miss U

I Miss U

This past Monday, Google released its newest feature from Gmail Labs. “Mail Goggles” is an opt-in service that has five simple math problems at the bottom of every e-mail you send on a Friday and Saturday night. You have 60 seconds to enter the right answers and if you mess up or run out of time, your e-mail won’t send and waits for you to be in a more, well, sober mindset.

According to the official Gmail Blog, Mail Goggles was developed to prevent Gmail users from sending e-mails they might later wish they didn’t. “Sometimes I send messages I shouldn’t send. Like the time I told that girl I had a crush on her over text message…When you enable Mail Goggles, it will check that you’re really sure you want to send that late night Friday e-mail.” A message comes up saying, “It’s that time of day. Gmail aims to help you in many ways. Are you sure you want to send this? Answer some simple math problems to verify,” followed by problems like “69-38” and “37+19.”

This is just one feature in the grand scheme of improvements to Gmail. Features like “Forgotten Attachment Detector” and “Pictures in Chat” are also part of the improvement plan and users are encouraged to provide feedback.

Though we’re not sure what is going to stop us from just grabbing a calculator, we are wondering if some math problems (and maybe some vocabulary questions, too) at the end of every e-mail sent by a student would help keep their skills just a bit sharper.

Mail Goggles is getting mixed feedback. What do you think about the newest, drunk-proof Gmail feature? [Forbes]

Posted: 10/10/08
Kristy101081

Useful tool, but fairly lame on email. Most people don't send drunk emails...it's the text messages that they have to worry about.

But, the question I have is, are there fail-safes in place for this in case the drunk person is in need of help and can't comprehensively answer these simple math questions? Sorry, gotta play devil's advocate on this one.

carolineshannon

Perfect. I agree with LMAYO9 ... we need this on our cell phones!

LauraLee311

Haha! I love it! It almost makes me want to get a gmail account. (So far I've been happy with Yahoo!)

aliciak

Wow, this is awesome! I *may* have drunk-texted in my days. ;)

  • By aliciak
  • on 10/14/08 11:00 AM EST
LMAYO9

Could this type of program be designed for other devices? Like a cell phone?

  • By LMAYO9
  • on 10/13/08 12:14 PM EST
cobber

The goggles would work before opening incoming weekend email, too. You know, the kind that gets ya all worked up.

  • By cobber
  • on 10/13/08 9:39 AM EST
Kiki76

So I totally thought this was a joke...it's pretty good though. I definitely need the forgotten attachment detector.I'm pretty sure my co-workers are over me sending emails without attachments!

  • By Kiki76
  • on 10/13/08 9:10 AM EST
joepierce

Friends don't let friends email drunk.
This message brought to you by Mothers Against Drunk Email (MADE).