Google Glass Testers “Spam” Google’s Social Network
The first flood of photos taken using Google’s wearable computer are underwhelming.
If you want to know what people with early access to Google’s wearable computer Glass are doing, take a look at the public feed on Google+, the company’s social network. Photos and videos taken with the device, most of them unexciting, are flooding the service under the tag #throughglass. A couple of Google+ users even complained about the sudden rush of activity last week, calling it “spam.”
Capturing photos or videos while driving is a favorite subject of Glass testers (see examples 1, 2 (video), 3, 4). Dogs are also a popular subject (see examples 1, 2). One person with Glass caught a train, another grilled. In short, most of those photos and videos are rather dull. As one Google+ user put it:
“What have we learned from #throughglass? It’s a computer you wear on your head to take pictures.”
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But there are some that hint at the more interesting things a computer worn on the head can make possible, such as this snap taken whilst playing volleyball, or this video captured by a person playing tennis.
The flood of images is likely due to Google+ being the only social network you can easily share to from Google Glass. No one seems to have linked their Glass up to Twitter, and we haven’t yet heard of any third party apps available for the device.
It seems likely that Google will attempt to use Glass to give its also-ran social network a boost (exact figures are not known but Google+ definitely lags Facebook and Twitter in usage and popularity). Google has begun integrating Google+ into its Android operating system for phones and tablets, and it looks like Glass will favor the company’s social network from the first. However, if Glass turns out to be like other mobile devices, before too long Facebook’s app will be the most popular.
