Google Glass Never Really Had A Fighting Chance



When Google announced it was ending the Glass Explorer program yesterday and handing over the reins to Nest’s Tony Fadell, it seemed to exit with more of a whimper than a scream.

Let’s face it, from its earliest days, people loved to hate Glass.

In fact, from the moment Google announced Glass, people reacted harshly to the new technology. They simply hated the idea of nerds with computers on their faces who could take photos or videos surreptitiously. A new word, Glassholes, entered the popular lexicon to describe folks who wore Glass.

It didn’t seem to matter that we were in the public eye with smartphones all around us taking video and pictures. The idea of a wearable optical device seemed to rub folks the wrong way.

And Google encouraged a sense of elitism by creating the Glass Explorer program, an exclusive club where for the price of $1500, if you were chosen, you could own your very own Glass.

The Explorer program was really a stroke of marketing genius. Google got people to pay for the privilege of beta testing their new wearable technology and reporting back to the company with their findings.

And yes, I actually went through this program; traveling to New York City in June, 2013 for my very own Google Glass adventure. I ponied up the money for the chance to be able to try the latest and greatest wearable, and Google made me feel pretty special in the process.

I was, after all, one of the chosen few; invited to their posh New York City offices and given a private fitting. Of course I had to pay my own way to get there, and pay for the device.

Being one of the chosen few, it turns out wasn’t cheap.

And after I got it home, I found I actually didn’t like a computer on my face or the interface Google had designed for it.

I found it uncomfortable looking up to see that small screen. What’s more, the operating system consisted of a carousel interface. You could move up and down and side to side within that interface, but your email, texts, tweets, whatever you were reading was on cards and you cycled through them by touching the side of the device. I found this awkward and I imagined that over time as more tools developed, the carousel itself would become overcrowded.

You could also use your voice, “OK Glass.” But I pictured people in the checkout lines at supermarkets all, muttering commands to their wearables. It didn’t seem like a plausible way of interacting with a computer in public on a regular basis.

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