GMAIL hopes its new “Mail Goggles” will ensure that users won't be sending out embarassing emails onlty to regret them later. The feature, rolled out this week by Google, requires users to solve a few timed math problems after they click the “send” button, to verify they are “in the right state of mind” to send that late-night missive. In its default setting, Mail Goggles is active only late on weekend nights “as that is the time you're most likely to need it,” but can be activated at other times as well, Gmail engineer Jon Perlow said in a posting on the Official Gmail Blog. Perlow said he designed Mail Goggles to spare others the pain inflicted by messages that should never have seen the sober light of day — that desperate love letter to your ex, or the brilliant riposte telling the whole office what you really think of your boss. Here's what the official Gmail blog post reads: “Sometimes I send messages I shouldn't send. Like the time I told that girl I had a crush on her over text message. Or the time I sent that late night email to my ex-girlfriend that we should get back together. Gmail can't always prevent you from sending messages you might later regret, but today we're launching a new Labs feature I wrote called Mail Goggles which may help. When you enable Mail Goggles, it will check that you're really sure you want to send that late night Friday email. And what better way to check than by making you solve a few simple math problems after you click send to verify you're in the right state of mind? By default, Mail Goggles is only active late night on the weekend as that is the time you're most likely to need it. Once enabled, you can adjust when it's active in the General settings. Hopefully Mail Goggles will prevent many of you out there from sending messages you wish you hadn't. Like that late night memo -- I mean mission statement -- to the entire firm.”
