Wherever I go to Continental Europe, the locals always say that the Brits are great fun – but they drink too much. As far away as Dubai, hotel waiters are regularly fishing people out of the swimming pool late at night. They are invariably British ex-pats. We have a strange relationship with booze, which goes back to Gin-soaked “Mother’s Ruin” era of the 18th Century and the rowdy London Mob (see “The London Mob: Violence and Disorder in Eighteenth-century London“). I’ve seen people more drunk in Helsinki – the Finns are big beer drinkers – but they are rarely rowdy with it. Not so the Brits. (And, BTW, I’m not exempting myself, on the rare occasion…).
Which is why Google’s new feature for drunks will play well here. To stop you sending that late-night email, pissed out of your mind, to your entire company, boss, or girlfriend, Gmail’s new Mail Goggles feature (no, it’s not April Fool’s day) will, in the words of Google’s official blog:
“…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? By default, Mail Goggles is only active late night on the weekend as that is the time you’re most likely to need it. Once enabled, you can adjust when it’s active in the General settings.”
Thanks Google. You just saved a lot of Brits from even more failed relationships than they already have, and a few jobs.