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ReadWriteWeb
Google Mail Goggles: Are You Sure You Want to Send That?
Google has improved any number of the Web activities in which we engage during the day. But what about those activities that occur late at night? Like firing off that email at 3 AM on Sunday morning after a night out?
If Jon Perlow has his way, Google may be able to save you from that moment of regret, too.
Perlow has used his Google Labs' time to build a new feature called "Mail Goggles." It's a simple addition to your Gmail settings that promises to make sending that soon-to-be-cold-sweat-inducing email a little more difficult:
Set to late-night Friday and Saturday by default, Mail Goggles can be configured to give you pause any day of the week at any time period you prefer. So, if you're more likely to send off regrettable emails on Monday than Friday, you're still covered.
To enable Mail Goggles, visit the Labs area in Gmail, select the time period you prefer, and save the changes.
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That might have come in handy the other night when I forgot to proofread an important mail I sent out. :)
Posted by: Amber Case | October 6, 2008 9:08 PM
Does it work on Twitter too?
It should.
Posted by: melissa lion | October 6, 2008 9:10 PM
that's f'ing stupid!
Posted by: ???? | October 6, 2008 9:34 PM
Does it work retroactively?
:)
Posted by: Aldo Bucchi
| October 6, 2008 9:41 PM
It's too late for April Fools...
Posted by: Kat | October 6, 2008 9:53 PM
Can we get something like that for the comments on RWW? Looks like commenter #3 would have benefited. ;-)
Posted by: Jason Grigsby | October 6, 2008 11:09 PM
I can't even do those math problems in the middle of the day.
Posted by: TiEsQue | October 6, 2008 11:43 PM
@TiEsQue That was the most difficult setting. You may want to turn it down a bit. ;)
Posted by: Rick Turoczy
| October 6, 2008 11:48 PM
I am not sure I would ever use this feature, but there are many Google features I would never use.
Jesse W.
http://www.churchofcowherd.com/
Posted by: Jesse Wojdylo | October 7, 2008 12:21 AM
I think this is a really god idea, you can never take something back that you send on email, speech can be denied, ''I never said that''!
Posted by: Baby | October 7, 2008 12:34 AM
Why not just schedule the message to be sent in the future with tools like Sendible.com? That way if you schedule it to be sent the next morning, you still have time to fix your mistakes! Sendible works with email, twitter, SMS etc.
Posted by: Stuart | October 7, 2008 4:36 AM
Yes, but can you disable the settings while during those time periods? In that case someone not in the clearest state of mind who is determined can just disable and then still wreak havoc. I guess it at least requires a little extra time and thought though.
Posted by: james | October 7, 2008 5:08 AM
It's a funny idea that will not get much use but for the few who use it will probably discourage them enough not to send out late drunken emails. I didn't realize late drunken emails were an issue, I thought people just stuck with texts.
Craig
www.budgetpulse.com
Posted by: Craig | October 7, 2008 7:48 AM
Is that a feature? Is it also included in Google Apps for corporates? or only for personal users? If some other email service added this instead of Gmail(esp hotmail) everyone would have ripped them apart.I dont know why some claim this as a cool feature.Is it a Google bias?(i'm not google hateboy i use and love gmail)
Posted by: Lakshmi Narayanan | October 7, 2008 9:01 AM
This is a cool feature, but you should have told me about it yesterday:)
Posted by: Gabi Aldamiz-echevarrÃa | October 7, 2008 11:07 AM
Simple but could be very effective. Sometimes all you need is a third party (human or google) to give you that "....really?" look and you realize you're about to make a bad decision.
...If there was an iphone app that reached out and slapped you on the wrist (literally or figuratively) before letting you drunk dial/text that could be good too.
Google, you on it? Or should we leave that to the iphone app developers?
Posted by: Sandra Possing
| October 7, 2008 1:27 PM
I enjoy that the Gmail team spends time developing additional features but I think this is a tad silly. I'd like to see them develop something similar to mailbox rules in Outlook. I'd love an 'outbox' section where email I send is held for a quick 30-60 seconds so I can catch those 'oh sh*t i forgot...' messages.
Posted by: Nathan | October 7, 2008 4:23 PM
silly
Posted by: mark | October 7, 2008 7:25 PM
Like others have commented, where's the rationale that a 3 a.m. email is not appropriate when the recipient may be on the other side of the world when it's the middle of the afternoon?
Posted by: Ari Herzog | October 7, 2008 10:37 PM
Ari, it has to do what what state of mind you tend to be in at various times. E.g. if you tend to be drunk friday evenings maybe you want someone to double check that you mean to send that e-mail.
Posted by: chester | October 8, 2008 6:36 AM