Mail Goggles or Beer Googles: an end to drunken typing?

A few years ago, LG did its bit for lovelorn drunkards by fitting a mobile phone with a breathalyser. Primarily designed to warn drivers if they were over the limit, the handset would also block certain phone numbers in the absence of sobriety.

Now Google plans to extend similar protection to e-mail. And just as the American traffic police favour tests of balance and co-ordination over the breathalyser, so Google has opted for quick-fire maths puzzles to determine whether would-be messagers are thinking straight.

John Perlow, a Gmail engineer, explains:

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?

You can choose when the maths barrier is erected, but by default it guards your account on Friday and Saturday nights. That may be enough to dissuade the amateurs, but those determined to get around the system will no doubt keep a calculator to hand, or train themselves in the dark arts of drunken mathematics.

If nothing else, it may well boost our numeracy skills.

Related: Send us your embarrassing stories