Google Goggles

Are you one of those people who send an email late one night and regret doing so?

From the Associated Press...

Here's the scenario: It's Friday night, and what began as an innocent happy-hour margarita morphed into a few pitchers. After all, those tacos were salty.

Bidding friends adieu, you jump in a cab, head home and decide a quick e-mail check is in order. And there it is: a message from your ex. Or your boss. Or that friend you're secretly mad at.

If you're the kind of person who types tipsy and regrets it in the morning, Google's "Mail Goggles," a new test-phase feature in the free Gmail service, might save you some angst.

The Goggles can kick in late at night on weekends. The feature requires you to solve a few easy math problems in short order before hitting "send." If your logical thinking skills are intact, Google is betting you're sober enough to work out the repercussions of sending that screed you just drafted.

And if you can't multiply two times five, you'll probably thank Google in the morning.

To activate Goggles, Gmail users should click the "Settings" link at the top of a Gmail page, then go to the "Labs" section.

There's no shame in admitting that sometimes you need a little extra help. Gmail engineer Jon Perlow designed Goggles with his own weaknesses in mind.

"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 e-mail to my ex-girlfriend that we should get back together," he wrote when announcing Mail Goggles on a company blog.

Personally, I do not drink alcohol, but I can see how this could help some people LOL

Google and Yahoo Search Advertising Partnership

Just when you thought Google or Yahoo couldn't think of the next best thing in regards to search engines and advertising. Take a look...

Google and Yahoo have agreed to a “brief” delay in the planned start of their search advertising partnership to give the Justice Department additional time to investigate the antitrust implications of the deal, the companies said Friday.

“The companies have agreed to a brief delay in implementing this agreement to continue our ongoing discussions with the Department of Justice,” Yahoo said in a statement. “We have had discussions with regulators and look forward to responding to their questions about this agreement.”

In its statement, Google said: “As we are still in conversation with the Department of Justice, we have agreed to a brief delay in implementing the agreement while those discussions continue.”

The companies have been saying that they would go ahead with their plans in early October, regardless of whether the Justice Department had completed its review. Under the partnership, Google would place ads alongside some of Yahoo’s search results.

“Time is money in our business,” Eric Schmidt, Google’s chief executive, said in a meeting with reporters last month.

Google and Yahoo announced the deal in June and said they would voluntarily delay its implementation for about 100 days to give regulators time to review it. But the companies refused to publicly set a date for the start of the partnership.

I have used Google as my favorite search engine for a very long time and will continue to use it!