Where Was This After the Office Xmas Party? Mail Goggles from Gmail

Posted on 26 January 2009 by


In a continuing effort to save us from ourselves, the good folks at Google have rolled out a new product aimed at offering late-night drunken emailers the restraint they may be unable to muster for themselves. Behold: Mail Goggles.

The basic idea is that after the user sets up a set of parameters for when the application is enabled, they must complete a series of five math problems within 60 seconds to gain access to the send functions of their Gmail account. Kind of like a breathalyzer for your keyboard. Depending on your natural math abilities, you can vary the difficulty from 2nd grade math to grad school. The default time window is Friday and Saturday night, from 10:00 pm until 4:00 am, but you can change that to allow for Wednesday Megarita happy hour at the Big Sombrero or Monday night softball if you’d prefer.

Think of the embarrassing situations that could be avoided by the use of a little forethought before hitting “send.” Mail Goggles is still in beta coming out of Google’s labs, but maybe next they’ll find a way to stomp out late night drunken texting as well.

The reputation you save may be your own.

pig

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- who has written 34 posts on Gear Diary.

Chris is a native of Nashville, TN and an honors graduate from Stanford University (where it should have occurred to him in the late `80's that maybe this computer business thing was gonna take off.) After 25 years in the business of selling flattened dead trees to printers who used them to make something which the ancients called "books," somebody finally slapped Chris over the head with an iPad whereupon he became the Director of Business Development for an internet services company that works with US retailers to help them sell their products overseas. His other day gig is as a food and drink writer for several regional newspapers, magazines and blogs. Chris has a travel/restaurant guide/cookbook coming out next fall which he is sure your mother would just love as a holiday present.

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