You’ve heard of beer goggles, now we’ve got Mail Goggles

Posted October 7, 2008 at 02:35 PM by Jodie Andrefski

Section: Computers, Gadgets / Other, Household, Lifestyle, Miscellaneous, Web, Downloads, Web Apps, Web Browsers, Websites, Google

You know those late night e-mails you send out pleading for your girlfriend to take you back?  Then, you wake up the next morning and remember all the reasons you broke up with her in the first place and think oh my God what did I do?!? and wish there was a big old RETRACT button on your e-mail?  Well, until they come up with that e-mail retract button, they have something else.  Something that will at least sort of slow you down and make you think before you send that pleading missive of unrequited love.  Something that makes you solve math problems.

Yep.  You read that right.  Solve math problems.  See, GMail Engineer Jon Perlow over at Google Labs figured that if you are actually going to sit there and be able to think through solving some math problems, then just maybe you are in fact thinking clearly, and actually do want to send that email and the desire isn’t just an alcohol induced psychosis.

So, he developed Mail Goggles.  In its default settings, Mail Goggles is only active late nights on the weekend (since they figure that’s when most people need it and make their frantic emails that they later tend to regret).  You can change when it is active in the General Settings area once you enable the program though, if you feel your prime “I need goggles” time is different or if it is an around the clock thing.

This just may save a few relationships, jobs, or just help a few save face before hitting “send.“  Regardless, this is kind of a fun idea.

via [techmeme] and [gmailblog]