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Google Goggles: Necessary

Mail Goggles meant to help prevent you writing missives you'll regret

By Katherine Thompson, Newser Staff

Posted Oct 19, 2008 2:35 PM CDT

(Newser) – With drunk-dialing evolving at the speed of technology, people need an updated version of that friend who grabs your phone and says, "Dude, don't call her." But, asks Alex Williams in a look at Google's Mail Goggles in the New York Times, "Are we becoming so tethered to our keyboards that we really need the technological equivalent of trigger locks on firearms?" The answer, it would seem, is a resounding yes.

Making users answer simple math problems to ensure they're in possession of their senses before typing off a screed to a co-worker or ex makes sense in an era when work emails are readily accessible even from bars. "There’s a dangerous point of intoxication where you’re lucid enough to operate a keyboard," a dating blogger warns. The service is so valuable, a magazine editor says, it's "disappointing that it’s only on Gmail,” when many need it to avoid drunken texting

[Images (2)]

[Quotes (2)]

If phones had sobriety tests, too, they could keep you from doing the kind of "drunk-texting" that you later regret. (©gregor_y)

Hang on there, Don Juan: Google has a few questions for you before you proceed with this missive. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)

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What am I thinking? I can def. do better then this. can you drive my car and get me out of here? - The message one man accidentally sent to the woman he was with

Good evening. The number I have listed for you doesn’t seem to respond. Quite curious. I would be most grateful to receive your updated number. Seasons greetings. - Ryan Dodge, a dating blogger who channels Jeeves when drunkenly emailing

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Google Goggles: Necessary