RSS
Mail Goggles: Another Dumb Idea Out of Google
By Reshma Kumar at October 08, 2008 6 Comments
Here’s another idea that should never have made it out the petri dish at Google Labs. Gmail, which I like, has added a new feature to prevent you from sending email that you might later regret. You can enable a new feature in Gmail called Mail Goggles which will prompt you to solve some math problems after you click ‘Send’ to verify you’re in the right state of mind and that you are sure you really want to send the email. Luckily, the pesky thing is only active by default late at night on the weekend; as Google claims, that is the time you’re most likely to need it. And once it’s enabled, you can adjust when it’s active.
Did market research tell them this is something users really want? Is this something that really enhances the user experience and adds value? I highly doubt that. This is more of a nuisance. If you are sending late night emails, the last thing you want is to be annoyed by having to solve geeky math problems just to get your email out. This is more of a user experience hindrance than help. For a company that prides itself so much on usability, this is highly surprising. The 10% time some Googlers have to work on special projects must be getting slashed in half because this is half-baked. Hatching up new ideas to keep the PR machine rolling is tough. This is what happens when you start drinking your own cool aid and keep trying to be cute and smart. Whomever came up with this or better yet, approved this out the door, should be fired!
Labels: Gmail, google, usability 2.0, user experience, web 2.0
6 Comments
Are you serious? Fired for dumb ideas -in their case that would mean the whole company.
Yeah, this has become a joke. They always claim they have smart people but it is one dumb idea after another. Jay Leno has been making fun of it ever since.
Hi Reshma,
If you can imagine long hours of tan under the monitor heat, and the ‘cool down’ that can happen during weekends, I DONT think it is so dumb an idea after all, from the Google gang.
As much as Weekend sprees changes one’s real world physical demeanor, for us Cyber-Guzzlers, it also triggers a strange, rash detour from usual e-mail etiquette.
A relevant step towards ‘emotional’ computing ??
i know what you think now, I should have been in Google??!
!!
This feature is optional, you can disable it. And it does appeal to the geek crowd.
Brilliant idea! It’s clever, does no harm to existing user accounts, and keeps Google in the headlines. Good for them
I think these ideas go up and down based on the stock market - the higher the stock pricer the fatter the cats and less innovative they get. Based on the recent drop, the ideas should start ticking in