Friday, October 10, 2008

Oogley Googley

This new feature by Google was in the news yesterday. Here is an excerpt:


{Sometimes I send messages I shouldn't send. 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. Gmail can't always prevent you from sending messages you might later regret, but today we're launching a new Labs feature I wrote called Mail Goggles which may help.

When you enable Mail Goggles, it will check that you're really sure you want to send that late night Friday email. 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?}

This is fantastic stuff. The feature is only available on the weekends during late night hours, times that one may be be more inclined to send such messages. I could name names right now of some friends of mine that this tool would have come in very handy in the past. Facebook and MySpace should definitely jump on board. I thought of some other questions other than simple math solutions that may also help with this preventative measure...

-On a scale of 1-10, how much will your friends laugh at you if they could read this message?

-What does VIP stand for?

Better yet, why not just institute a breathalyzer? This should also be applicable to late night trips to eBay or really anywhere that it's possible to spend money. We have the technology for cars, why not computers? I accept this as my mission. I'm going to write my Congressman and I ask that you do the same.

2 comments:

Darla said...

That's hilarious! Is it for real? I remember a late-night Cutco purchase...

Blessed Mama said...

I wonder if you could get a pre-dial program for regular phone calls too. Maybe your big sister's voice could just pop up for a second and say, "What are you doing? Hang up the phone." :)