Drunk emailing? Mail Goggles to the rescue

By Rafe Needleman on 07 October 2008, 10:16am

Just a quick post to mention a silly (or is it?) experiment that Google has released to the public: Mail Goggles. This feature is designed to prevent you from sending stupid emails in the small hours, when you're most likely to be inebriated and at risk of making a complete idiot of yourself.

When enabled, Mail Goggles kicks in at the time you specify (default is between 10pm and 4am on Friday and Saturday), and throws five maths problems up on the screen when you press 'send'. You have a limited period of time to solve them. If you can answer the questions, presumably you're of sound enough mind to tell off your boss or pour your heart out to your ex.

If you can solve simple maths problems even when under the table, there's an option to ramp up the difficulty of the questions, but sadly they remain in the mathematical realm and don't drift into interesting algebra or calculus.

To activate Mail Goggles, go into Gmail's settings and turn on Mail Goggles in the 'Labs' tab. Then adjust how and when it works in the 'General' tab.

Seriously? We're hoping this feature shows up on blogging products. -Rafe Needleman