Drinking and e-mailing don't mix: Google service aims to keep you from typing things you'll regret

Drinking and e-mailing don't mix: Google service aims to keep you from typing things you'll regret
By Tracy Connor Daily News Staff Writer
Wednesday, October 8th 2008, 4:00 AM
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Why did I press 'Send'?! A new service from Google aims to help eliminate those drinking-and-typing moments you regret the next morning.
Manhattan resident Matt Brand remembers the night he came home drunk and sent his ex-girlfriend an e-card suggesting, in crude terms, that he still carried a torch for her.
"It was a Saturday night and I was loaded," said Brand, 33, who works in advertising. "I haven't heard back from her since."
So when Brand heard about a new feature of Google's Gmail service called Mail Goggles - designed to prevent people from e-mailing while intoxicated - he signed up.
"I do that kind of stuff all the time," he said. "You're incredibly impulsive at three in the morning."
The safeguard works like this: Gmail users can set it to turn on during their danger times - say, midnight to 5 a.m. on weekend nights.
To send a message during that period, they first have to answer a series of math questions - a cinch if they're sober, all but impossible after eight Heinekens.
Get one problem wrong and you won't be allowed to fire off that e-mail telling your boss what you really think of her or that topless photo to the guy in the next cubicle.
Bad at math? Not to worry. Google's version of a Breathalyzer lets the user set the difficulty level of the questions.
Gmail engineer Jon Perlow said personal experience spurred him to create the feature, which debuted Monday.
"Sometimes I send messages I shouldn't send," he wrote on Google's official blog.
"Like the time I told that girl I had a crush on her over text message. Or the time I sent that late night e-mail to my ex-girlfriend that we should get back together....
"Hopefully, Mail Goggles will prevent many of you out there from sending messages you wish you hadn't."
Of course, it can't stop you from posting that photo on Facebook
tconnor@nydailynews.com