Google just can't help itself.
As much as it wants to become a slimmer, more focused organization, it can't help but delve into wacky side projects.
The company is preparing to release a set of advanced glasses that act as mini-computers, Nick Bilton at the New York Times reports. The project is coming from Google X, the experimental projects wing of the company, run by Sergey Brin.
The glasses will have little cameras in them and overlay information about the world on the lenses. They are going to cost about the same amount as a smartphone.
These terminator glasses are everything great and horrible about Google wrapped into one.
It's awesome that a big company like Google is willing to take a chance and release something as advanced, and seemingly useless, as glasses that have computing technology baked into them. More companies should take risks like this. It's how we get cool technology into the world.
On the other hand ... is this really the best use of resources?
Google has failed to build a great rival to Microsoft Office, something people have been begging for. It has failed to figure out a second significant revenue source. (It's all ads.) And, it's about to own Motorola, a dying company that will need all the focus and attention Google can muster.
Now, one of the company's co-founders is off tinkering with augmented reality glasses.
No matter how small a part of the company Google X is, it's still a distraction for a company that needs fewer distractions, not more.
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