Gmail "Mail Goggles" Will Prevent You From Sending Letters You'll Regret
Gmail "Mail Goggles" Will Prevent You From Sending Letters You'll Regret
Posted 10/07/2008 at 10:30am
| by Paul Lilly
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Google wants to make sure you never again send an email that you later wish you could take back. Problem is, once that angry letter or drunken confession flies out of your outbox, the damage has been done and it's only a matter of time before the recipient reads it. If only there could have been someone by your side to force you to solve math problems before allowing you to send that email! Wait, what?
Now there will be, and it's called Mail Googles. Once enabled, Mail Goggles will subject you to a handful of math equations that must be answered before that email can be whisked away for good.
"When you enable Mail Goggles, it will check that you're really sure you want to send that late night Friday email," writes Jon Perlow, a Gmail engineer. "And what better way to check than by making you solve a few simple math problems after you click send to verify you're in the right state of mind?"
Hit the jump to post your thoughts on this one, but first, what's 86-32?
Image Credit: Google
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FusilliJerry82
October 07, 2008 at 7:49pm
From my daily transactions at stores, I'd say Google would be discluding ~50% of the SOBER population.
jwalch.hawk
October 08, 2008 at 3:06pm
Heh, I saw that comic too, though I don't think this is quite the same thing... xkcd's idea is to demonstrate to you that what you wrote was truly stupid... Whereas this isn't really doing that so much as demonstrating that perhaps you might not be in the most mentally agile state. While one would logically assume that if you can't answer easy arithmetic problems that whatever you wrote was probably pretty dumb, that doesn't necessarily have to be true.
But kudos for the xkcd reference. I definitely check there every MWF. :P
da_samman
October 07, 2008 at 11:48am
I am thinking this has GOT to be a joke. IF it isn't, then it could wind up being a very handy addon for those who tend to give in to drunken stupidity online.
Sincerely yours, from FOB Striker, Iraq,
SGT Samuel E. McClard II
Life's a journey, enjoy the ride!!
jwalch.hawk
October 08, 2008 at 3:47pm
This totally is not a joke... Log into your Gmail, then hit Settings, then Labs. It's in that list. Once you add it you can modify the settings for it under Settings, General. You can set the time and days that it is active as well as the difficulty...
zodi
October 07, 2008 at 11:39am
By the time I answer the questions I will be to tired to send the email...
Guess it works
sirphunkee
October 07, 2008 at 11:37am
When I saw the google blog about this, I laughed my ass off, this is awesome. Drunk-mail filter for your gmail. Brilliant!!!!
Google, PLEASE port this over to mobile platforms!!
mlee19
October 07, 2008 at 11:10am
However, still you have to give google some credit for being inovative. I think it is rather a great feature they have created.
Talcum X
October 07, 2008 at 10:59am
I dont have this issue, angry or drunk. I guess they are talking to a select crowd. Like, the Irish. (see below)
***********
Every morning is the dawn of a new error.
"In Ireland, there are more drunks per capita than people." - Peter Griffin
Keith E. Whisman
October 07, 2008 at 10:53am
Some of those math problems are impossible to answer without a calculator because it's more than 10 fingers and 10 toes and 1 butt.
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