This post is part of a series on That INDIE Dude called “Uber-YOU” - all about using web 2.0 and other connected technologies for the greatest impact and productivity possible!

Uber-YOU #4: Google Protects

Sometimes we’re the only smart ones in the world, and everyone else is stupid. But, we all have had moments where it’s the other way around: we catch ourselves being the “stupid ones”.  So what to do in those situations?

My favorite online comic, Randall Munroe’s xkcd, had a humorous suggestion (click link to go to actual posting):

Well, as I and some other avid XKCD readers were laughing our butts off at the comic last week, someone from Google was saying “why not?”  The result?  ”Audio Preview” on Youtube comments (and probably soon to be implemented elsewhere around Google properties).

Now, when writing comments at Youtube, you can click “Audio Preview” if you want to hear what that comment sounds like.  Of course it is just a text-to-speech engine, so it isn’t the most natural sounding in the world.  But regular use of this feature might just save you from saying something you would have regretted  Check out Randall’s response to the Google implementation here.

 

#2 on the list off Google tools to help save you from yourself is the new Google Mail Goggles.

Perhaps not coincidentally, this popped up within a day of the Youtube “Audio Preview” feature.  It seems the Google engineers were on a mission to protect us from our worst moments this week.  Now by heading into your Gmail “settings” (top right) you can select the “Labs” tab and enable “Mail Goggles”.  

So what exactly does it do?  It’s kind of like a breathalizer test for e-mailing.  Say you come home late on the weekend after a few too many and feel unusually pissed at your boss.  Maybe, without your normal fully sober discernment, you decide to write him an e-mail to tell him how you feel.  You pop open Gmail, write an eloquent letter calling Mr. Bossman every name in the book, and hit the send key.  Well, if you happened to have Mail Goggles enabled, Google would know it is “that time of day” and pop up with a series of math questions to test your sobriety.  The questions aren’t that hard, but answering them in the allotted time limit would be under any “influence”.  Check out the full run down on Google’s Gmail blog post. 

Don’t stop with mail goggles though!  The gmail labs are FILLED with handy features to save you from those annoying mistakes.  All can be enabled by going to “Settings” and then the “labs” tab in your Gmail account.  My other personal favorites are:

1) “Forgotten Attachment Detector” which looks through your e-mail to look for the words “attached ….” and asks you if you wanted to attach something before sending the message off.  I can’t count the number of times I’ve forgotten to attach that latest design mockup or other file.

2) “Vacation Time!” which lets you schedule vacation auto-responders AHEAD of time so you don’t forget last minute.

3) “Email Addict” which gives you a link in the top-right to “Take a Break”.  Click this and it will disable e-mail and make you invisible on Google Chat for 15 minutes.  This is great for forcing yourself to get up and walk around now and then.

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Of course, the world is full of implementations to save you from yourself.  Heck, anyone who uses Windows Vista learns how to turn off the annoying User Account Control feature in about 10 minutes.  I’m just highlighting these tools because they are new, fresh looks at making sure the rest of the world only sees our best.  

Have any favorites of your own?  Post them in the comments below!

Tags: funstuff, google, productivity, uber-you

This entry was posted on Friday, October 10th, 2008 at 8:35 pm and is filed under Indie Life. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.