E-SPEAIT Andre week 1

 

There have been many great ideas that seem like they could make your life more convenient. A lot of them have, but there are also projects that the public is not that accepting of. Here I am giving a short overview  of three Google’s not so successful projects

Firstly, an idea that seemed like straight out of a movie. AR glasses/smart glasses. For example Google Glass, which was released 2013 as a prototype and a year later as a product for public. The idea of using voice commands and gestures to control what is in front of your eyes was amazing. It is a good idea, but is it actually needed? Some professions might benefit from having certain applications in front of them at all times, but I feel like a regular person is not getting much out of it. It just looks cool. I would not say that the idea as a whole is a failure, but Google Glass was introduced at the wrong time. One of the reasons Google Glass did not do well was because of its camera. Privacy concerns were raised because the glasses allowed people to record video without anyone noticing. Which caused them to be banned in many public areas. Also, they were not the most fashionable choice of eyewear. And to top it all of, it had a price tag of 1500 dollars. In 2015 Google ended the sales.

Secondly, Project Ara, also from Google. The projects intent was to create a smartphone, that people can customize according to their liking. They wanted provide a smartphone where common phone parts are swappable. Such as a display, battery, camera, processor. This would also mean there is no need to buy a new smartphone every couple of years because you could just swap out the part you want to upgrade. Project Ara was supposed to launch for public in 2017, but in 2016 the whole concept of the project was revised. The new idea was different from the initial thought and lost the capability to swap modules. Project Ara was cancelled before the launch date. 

Thirdly, Google+ (Google Plus). Google saw the success that Facebook and Twitter had and I guess they wanted to get under the spotlight with their own social network. Google+ was launched in 2011 and within the first two weeks 10 million users were registered and at the start of 2012 that number had grown to 90 million. In 2014 the founder of Google+ left the company which brought in some changes. New leaders left its collaboration with Hangouts and photos. That took a big part of social out of social network. In addition to that, they later started to detach from Google Play and YouTube. I'm sure that played a part in why Google+ did not become popular. Reportedly there were software errors and the user engagement was just not it. In 2015 the company admitted that 90% of the users did not spend more than five seconds on the platform. It has been said that Google+ was convenient for some companies to use, but not for personal usage like Facebook. Google+ shut down in 2019.

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