10.07.2008

For Those Times When You Just Go Too Far...


Google Mail Goggles aims to end drunken email embarrassment
System will block — or at least make people reconsider sending — the type of message they will regret the next day

As mornings after go, there are few combinations more deadly than a computer, too much alcohol and a seething sense of indignation.

But there could soon be a solution for people who cannot resist sending an ill-conceived drunken email to their boss or a former lover.

An altruistic Google employee has come up with a system that will block — or at least make people reconsider sending — the type of message they will probably regret the next day.

Mail Goggles, which can be set to spring into action late at night and at weekends, asks emailers to answer a series of short maths questions before sending a message. The basic addition and multiplication sums have to be completed within a time limit.

The idea, according to the Gmail engineer Jon Perlow, is to help those who are a little too tired and emotional to foresee the consequences of their actions.

"Sometimes I send messages I shouldn't send," Perlow confessed on the Gmail blog.

"Like the time I told that girl I had a crush on her over text message. Or the time I sent that late-night email to my ex-girlfriend that we should get back together."

Rest of the article is here.

1 comment:

Jungle Jay said...

i can smell the hate sex.