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.

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