Google Goggles: Necessary

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
(More Google stories.)