The Latest from Google Labs

The latest innovation out of Google Labs might become a favorite of anyone prone to inebriated, late-night, rambling emails they end up regretting later:

The program is as simple as it is genius. In addition to doing a few mathematic equations, Gmail Goggles gives you a few seconds to think about whether or not your ex truly will be happy to wake up to a semi-coherent e-mail professing undying love and regret at the split. He or she probably won't be too thrilled and, ultimately, not sending that message is for the best.

The program requires the user to solve the math problems during a specified time period before it will send anything, and its default active times (nights and weekends) can be changed by the user.

In a sort of "Onion-predicts-the future" way, this reminds me of Google's own April Fool's Day "GMail Custom Time" riff from earlier this year.

And speaking of satirical "predictions" of the future, I recently stumbled upon a neat, interactive collection of Mad Magazine fold-ins, some of which, like the first that comes up, are amusingly prophetic.

-- CAV

This post was composed in advance and scheduled for publication at 5:00 A.M. on October 8, 2008.