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DRUNK AGAIN? MAIL GOGGLES COULD STOP THOSE EMBARRASSING E-MAILS

Mathew Ingram | Columnist profile | E-mail
From Wednesday's Globe and Mail

It sounds like something that started as an April Fool's joke, or maybe over a few beers: The latest advancement from Internet giant Google is designed to help avoid those awkward episodes where you have to apologize for a late-night e-mail you sent while intoxicated.

Known as "Mail Goggles," the feature can be turned on at any time - for example, between 2 a.m. Saturday and 2 a.m. Sunday - and when you try to e-mail someone it prompts you with a pop-up window that asks, "Are you sure you want to send this?"

You are then given several math problems to solve, and if you can't answer them correctly, Google will refuse to send your e-mail (of course, if you're sober enough, you could always click through to the mail settings and turn the feature off).

The only negative response to Google's new Gmail feature has come from the mathematically challenged, who fear they won't be able to do the math problems even when they're sober.

Perhaps Google needs something a little more right-brained. Maybe a "spot the differences in these two photos" test, or a "which wine goes with this cheese?" exam.

For more details and links, please see the Ingram 2.0 blog at http://www.globetechnology.com.