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An end to drunken, embarrassing emails?

Google has released a plug-in for Gmail which prevents you from sending drunken emails, but without the need for a breathalyser.

Ty Pendlebury Editor
Ty Pendlebury is a journalism graduate of RMIT Melbourne, and has worked at CNET since 2006. He lives in New York City where he writes about streaming and home audio.
Expertise Ty has worked for radio, print, and online publications, and has been writing about home entertainment since 2004. He majored in Cinema Studies when studying at RMIT. He is an avid record collector and streaming music enthusiast. Credentials
  • Ty was nominated for Best New Journalist at the Australian IT Journalism awards, but he has only ever won one thing. As a youth, he was awarded a free session for the photography studio at a local supermarket.
Ty Pendlebury
2 min read

If you're of an age where being "tired and emotional" is acceptable, then there's no doubt that you have used a PC or mobile phone to send a message to someone which you instantly regretted when in a more "alert" state.

To help counter potential embarrassment, Google has released an optional add-on for its Gmail service that makes you complete some mathematical problems before sending off that global email proposing to your ex.

Called Mail Goggles, the add-on is one of many available under the Labs section of Gmail. If you think you can answer 256 minus 89 in less than 10 seconds sober, but not-so-much when completely slaughtered, then this is the plug-in for you.

To turn it on go to Settings > Labs > Mail Goggles, and click "Enable" then Save Changes. Then you'll need to configure it to activate at the times you're most likely to wear underpants on your head — say 11pm till 6am on Friday night. Go to Settings > General and click the corresponding boxes.

The genius is that the maths questions don't pop up until after you hit send, so you're blissfully unaware that it's turned on until the last second.

Mail Goggles should be easy for anyone who's sat through an exam while drunk. (Credit: Google)

If you get it wrong you'll get a message saying: "Water and bed for you".

Of course, Gmail will auto-save your message, so if you fail the test several times, you can always quit out, turn the feature off, and then resend the message.

We would suggest a spelling or caps filter, or even an MS paper-clip system that pops up when the term "love", or conversely "bastard", is said a set number of times, but then we'd never be able to email anyone…

(PS I love you… I never GET to tell ya qsknjiouh but it's truueEEEeee@!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ooh, a hamster)