Mail Goggles

Being in internet marketing, when a company online starts up a new project or adds a new feature to their current system I always look at it in a different perspective than most people, especially when it is something that reaches mainstream news.  For example this story in The Sun:

INTERNET giant Google is to make boozy emailers do sums — to help them avoid sending messages they later regret.

It won’t let them hit the send key unless they are sober enough to do an “easy” maths test.

Users of Google’s Gmail messaging service can choose to activate “Mail Goggles”, which kicks in at night and at weekends.

Its designer Jon Perlow said he came up with the idea to stop himself sending drunken messages, adding: “Sometimes I send ones I shouldn’t.”

I mean to some people it is nothing but a fluff piece, or a silly little feature.  But when you really think about it – it is pure genius.  Who HASN’T sent out drunk e-mails from time to time, and regretted it the next day?  So immediately google have added this awesome feature that can get more people switching to their mail problem, because so many of the online population can actually relate to this.  Furthermore, it just adds even more to their branding, as this is the kind of feature that generates a lot of word of mouth, from geeks to frat boys.

And the best thing?  It isn’t even a unique idea!  Certain cellphone companies have been doing something similar to this(drunk text message blocking) for over a year.  It shows that you don’t need new ideas – you just find a current idea and do it better, or an idea in another industry and apply it to yours.

I have my problems with google, but you can never fault their marketing machine.