Please read this article from the Chicago Tribune. Hilarious.

Google’s drunk e-mailing protection is nice, but won’t save you
When you go mobile, you’re on your own
By Wailin Wong
Chicago Tribune reporter
October 9, 2008

Think Google’s new program to prevent you from drunk e-mailing will save you from saying something you’ll regret in the morning? Think again.

Yes, the new Gmail feature, Mail Goggles, requires you to solve five math problems in 60 seconds before it will send a message. That should cut back on one ill-advised form of digital correspondence: drunk e-mailing from a computer.

Get the math problems wrong and Mail Goggles generates this admonition: "Water and bed for you."

But even if Google deems you too inebriated to correspond with your boss or your ex, what about all the other ways to communicate something stupid?

Mail Goggles isn’t available for Gmail on cell phones, so bar-hopping BlackBerry and iPhone users are on their own. There’s no mention of whether the feature will be on the T-Mobile G1, the mobile phone with Google’s software platform that goes on sale at the end of next week.

As one person in an online discussion group for Google Labs pointed out: "I find my biggest problem with drunk e-mailing is from my mobile device. However, the mail goggles don’t seem to work from the BlackBerry."

Other companies have tried to tackle drunk dialing in the last few years. In Australia, Virgin Mobile let customers block outgoing calls to certain numbers during late-night hours. LG introduced a cell phone in Korea with a built-in Breathalyzer.

But there’s still no technological catch-all solution for drunk dialing and texting. And no one’s tackled some of the other foolhardy activities associated with a night out, like consuming a gross burrito at 3 a.m.

So watch out for your drinking buddies. Remember, friends don’t let friends send their exes e-mails like "OMG i miss u plz take me back."

wawong@tribune.com
Copyright © 2008, Chicago Tribune