Google’s Gmail service introduced a new product this week, Mail Goggles. From what I can gather the idea is that some people send email late at night on the weekends when apparently they are too tired to realize what they’re doing.
The app is simple, you schedule it for times that you think you may be too tired to email uninhibitedly. When you email during that time it pops open a little window with a number of math questions that have to be completed in a certain time frame. The idea is that if you can do the math, you are awake enough to send the email. It has several levels of difficulty.
Now, I didn’t know this was a problem. I have heard stories of people calling friends, family members, and old boyfriends or girlfriends when they’re tired and loopy and saying some crazy things, but never emailing! What made them think of this? I suppose some employee came in to work on a Monday and realized that the love letter he had sent to his contact named “Girlfriend” actually went to “Grandma.” Boy, that will ruin a family reunion! I’m sure he thought to himself, “Had I not been so tired, I could have caught this sooner! Good thing I’m a programmer at Google.”
I find this whole concept funny. I Know better than to email while tired, however I am an Engineer by degree. I’m sure I can do the hardest level of math in the given timeframe even when sleepy. I mean if I can’t, a calculator is never far away!
This app would make more sense for those people who drink and send emails while they were drunk. Wait! Do you think that’s what they were going for? Maybe so. Well, thankfully I don’t drink either.
Have fun with your Gmail folks, they have all sorts of cool stuff in the Gmail Labs!
Filed under: Web
