Slashdot Mirror


Google Forbids Advertising On Glass

An anonymous reader writes "Contrary to widespread thought, Google Glass will not be an advertising platform: 'Google Inc has lately told app developers that they are not allowed to present ads to Google Glass users and they are also not permitted to sell users' personal and private information for the fulfillment of advertising needs. The internet company has explicitly and openly said that the Glass platform should and must be clean and clear of any ads whatsoever, because the technology is designed to facilitate internet browsing and other related activities, therefore, the featured podium cannot be used to advertise products as it will cause the user experience to diminish.' Seems like Google is going for hardware-only revenue on this one." You're not supposed to resell the Glass hardware, either.

274 comments

  1. I think I'll wait for something Free by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Insightful

    As in libre Free. You can't prevent ads without either an onerous EULA with over-the-top enforcement or some hardcore DRM.

    I'd rather have an open/Free device. It's too bad Google has done away with the "Do no evil" mantra. :(

    1. Re:I think I'll wait for something Free by DragonWriter · · Score: 5, Interesting

      As in libre Free. You can't prevent ads without either an onerous EULA with over-the-top enforcement or some hardcore DRM.

      The no ads is a provision of the agreement required to use the API that lets web apps connect to glass, its not enforced by EULA or DRM

    2. Re:I think I'll wait for something Free by TheSkepticalOptimist · · Score: 1

      well, I guess you better go back into your cave because that is never going to happen.

      --
      I haven't thought of anything clever to put here, but then again most of you haven't either.
    3. Re:I think I'll wait for something Free by h4rr4r · · Score: 1

      Sure you can.
      Any ad spewing to Glass software gets kicked out of the market. If users still want it they can get it through alternate markets.

    4. Re:I think I'll wait for something Free by Thud457 · · Score: 4, Funny

      Leela: Didn't you have ads in the 21st century?"

      Fry: Well sure, but not in our dreams. Only on TV and radio, and in magazines, and movies, and at ball games... and on buses and milk cartons and t-shirts, and bananas and written on the sky. But not in dreams, no siree.

      --

      the preceding comment is my own and in no way reflects the opinion of the Joint Chiefs of Staff

    5. Re:I think I'll wait for something Free by bfandreas · · Score: 5, Insightful

      This also means that users can simply uninstall the app. Since it isn't Google that's doing the ads it shhould be fairly easy to get rid of the offender.

      People will not ever get used to having apps constantly and without provocation pushed into their face. You know what you get when you load a website. You know what you get when your turn on your TV or radio. But walking down the street just to have the latest Amazon sale pushed into your peripheral vision will mean that the app will be deinstalled.

      What it won't prevent is showing those email notifications of that shop you once did business with and that has been pestering you ever since. And you will get solicited ads when you ask where to go for lunch. These informations will propably be pulled right off Google Maps and I highly suspect that this is where Google will be making its money.

      Also bear in mind that this thing isn't always on. You will either have to wake it up by fondling it or sloooowly lifting your head. So shoving unsolicited ads into your vision wouldn't work most of the time since it most likely will be turned off. Battery life isn't that good on that thing to have it turned on the whole day.

      --
      20 minutes into the future
    6. Re:I think I'll wait for something Free by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      >The no ads is a provision of the agreement required to use the API that lets web apps connect to glass, its not enforced by EULA or DRM

      Hmmm, perhaps in your country EULA doesn't stand for End User License Agreement? :)

    7. Re:I think I'll wait for something Free by Angostura · · Score: 4, Informative

      You appear to be confusing the end user with the service/app provider.

    8. Re:I think I'll wait for something Free by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      When did evil suddenly mean anything not perfectly pure and good? Most business isn't actually evil but is far from "good". They never promised to "do only good", they just promised to not do the evil things they could easily do in the business model they have chosen. There's a whole range of things that don't obviously fit into either the good or evil column there. While libre is inherently a good act, non-libre isn't automatically evil.

    9. Re:I think I'll wait for something Free by Joce640k · · Score: 2, Interesting

      The no ads is a provision of the agreement required to use the API that lets web apps connect to glass, its not enforced by EULA or DRM

      Is there also a provision that Google may change the EULA at any time, without prior notice? eg. When sales have taken off and enough people have been suckered in by the promise of no ads.

      --
      No sig today...
    10. Re:I think I'll wait for something Free by Merk42 · · Score: 2

      If it were libre, then that means you could do anything you want with it, including make it support ads. So in this case, it'd be worse. You prevent ads via the developers working with the API, the user doesn't have do anything. I also don't see what DRM has to do with anything here.

    11. Re:I think I'll wait for something Free by Lumpy · · Score: 2, Insightful

      "You can't prevent ads without either an onerous EULA with over-the-top enforcement or some hardcore DRM."

      So my blocking hosts file in my android phone is "hardcore DRM"? I prevent ads on my android devices just fine.

      --
      Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
    12. Re:I think I'll wait for something Free by DragonWriter · · Score: 2, Informative

      The no ads is a provision of the agreement required to use the API that lets web apps connect to glass, its not enforced by EULA or DRM

      Is there also a provision that Google may change the EULA at any time, without prior notice? eg. When sales have taken off and enough people have been suckered in by the promise of no ads.

      I know its too much to expect slashdot posters to RTFA, but is it really unreasonable to expect reading the part of the post you are responding to that you cut-and-paste-and-blockquote in your response? The no ads thing isn't part of the EULA at all, so changing it wouldn't involve changing the EULA.

    13. Re:I think I'll wait for something Free by Joce640k · · Score: 1, Redundant

      Alright, let me rephrase it so that people who can only read literally have a chance:

      Is there anything preventing google from allowing adverts in the future? eg. When sales have taken off and enough people have been suckered in by the promise of no adverts.

      --
      No sig today...
    14. Re:I think I'll wait for something Free by Xeranar · · Score: 1

      It's actually a poorly thought out business plan to bait and switch with ads. But nice try at being cynical. If profit is based on sales it relies on keeping the device viable, ads diminish that.

    15. Re:I think I'll wait for something Free by Mordanthanus · · Score: 1

      Normally, I would agree with you...

      I bought in to the whole Sirius/XM model of subscription-based radio with no ads... look where that got me.

      --
      User logging on... 300 baud... 300 BAUD?!? (Click!) NO CARRIER
  2. Just means they will make their money another way by ModernGeek · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I have a hard time believing that they will make all their revenue on hardware alone. They will have access to search and activity data combined with a feed that shows people's whereabouts and habits. This marketing data will be worth way more than any direct advertising.

    --
    Sig: I stole this sig.
  3. Avoiding Conflict of Interests by foobsr · · Score: 1
    Would be bad if the ad experience would double: glass and browsing.

    CC.

    --
    TaijiQuan (Huang, 5 loosenings)
    1. Re:Avoiding Conflict of Interests by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Number one google glass app: Adblock

    2. Re:Avoiding Conflict of Interests by LifesABeach · · Score: 1

      Does Google say anyting about "Product Placement?"

    3. Re:Avoiding Conflict of Interests by DragonWriter · · Score: 2

      Number one google glass app: Adblock

      Given that "Glass Apps" are web apps that send and/or receive information to the device via the Mirror API, I'm trying to imagine how that would even work.

  4. No ads? Only until it's built up in market share. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Then the spying and advertising will even be worst that it already is and there will be no way to install blockers.

  5. You should probably clarify by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Is that no ads or no third-party ads? Because I can totally see Google pulling an Apple with this one.

  6. Can't resell it... what?! I hope CM is okay... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Umm, isn't there a first sale law that says if this is truly a sale and not some kind of extended rental that the seller can't put limits on resales and such? I'm not a huge fan of Google Surveillan-- I mean Glass to begin with, and I'm sure I'd run some sort of ad blocker on it, but isn't Google positioning itself as an open company? If I buy this spy hardware, I should be able to do whatever I want with it, including replacing all the software, resell it, or whatever.

  7. Hardware revenue? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    > Seems like Google is going for hardware-only revenue on this one

    Or, you know, collecting user data such as location, what the user is looking at and browsing, and so on. Which then in turn can be used to target advertising.

    1. Re:Hardware revenue? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      they are also not permitted to sell users' personal and private information for the fulfillment of advertising needs

      Although I guess that could go for app developers and not Google themselves.

    2. Re:Hardware revenue? by Gaygirlie · · Score: 1

      The license specifically forbids that. You didn't read the thing, did you?

    3. Re:Hardware revenue? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Perhaps it can also uniquely identify its owner and not allow the device to be used if it has been sold to someone else.

  8. Awesome by Paperweight · · Score: 0

    Not that I'll be using it, but let me go out on a limb and say Google Glass is AWESOME. Alright you cynics, who shall cast the first stone?

    1. Re:Awesome by BasilBrush · · Score: 2

      Not only are developers not allowed to advertise, they aren't allowed to charge for the software either. So how are they going to be paid for their work? How are they going to be paid for the content; the servers?
      If the answer is that they're not, then that's going to limit the applications to amateur hour stuff.

      And is it really no advertising, or is it no third party advertising. Hard to imagine Google not using their usual revenue stream.

    2. Re:Awesome by slashmydots · · Score: 4, Funny

      It's distracting, causes ADD, causes eye strain, will get you mugged, people will use it while driving, induces battery phobia to the max, looks idiotic, causes memory degradation in your brain, and the controls are significantly less fast than a PC, laptop, tablet, or cell phone. Is that a good start?

    3. Re:Awesome by TrollstonButtersbean · · Score: 0

      Epic fail of trying to be funny. Hint: I groaned at the unfunny.

    4. Re:Awesome by h4rr4r · · Score: 1

      Who says they can't charge for software?
      I have plenty of pay for software on my phone, right next to the FREE software. So far the phone has not exploded.

    5. Re:Awesome by h4rr4r · · Score: 1

      So you have one?
      If not, how is your list anything other than total nonsense?

    6. Re:Awesome by ElectricTurtle · · Score: 1

      I love how you rush to say how Glass is catalytic in whole host of things when it isn't even in common use and no studies have been done. What a bunch of reactionary hyperbolic tripe.

      (... the fuck is "battery phobia" anyway?)

      --
      I support the Slashcott and will not be reading or commenting from 2/10/14 to 2/17/14. Beta is steaming pile of dog shit
    7. Re:Awesome by BasilBrush · · Score: 1

      Who says they can't charge for software?

      TFA, you dumbass.

    8. Re:Awesome by h4rr4r · · Score: 2

      1. Welcome to slashdot, we don't RTFA.
      2. See Rule 1

      They can't charge for google glass specific software. The idea is to get them to support glass in the normal software and not double dip.

    9. Re:Awesome by SolitaryMan · · Score: 1

      Some people around me do.

      I know one thing Glass is really good at: making me want to punch whoever wears them in the fucking face. Its like bluetooth earsets are back, times hundred.

      --
      May Peace Prevail On Earth
    10. Re:Awesome by slashmydots · · Score: 1

      Google themselves, in a slashdot story, plus other slashdot stories from 3rd parties stated every one of those as existing or likely possibilities. Battery Phobia is an uneasy feeling while using any product that has a battery because you know that sometime in the future it's going to run out. Even at 90% battery, you feel like it's always there...waiting! It's constantly ticking away like a countdown to shutdown. Then you worry about when you can charge it and what you have to do that day and where the charger is and if you'll make it through a meeting without needing a charge or if using an app is draining the battery 5x faster or not.
      Needless to say, I only ever use a laptop when it's plugged in whenever possible.

    11. Re:Awesome by tgd · · Score: 1

      Not that I'll be using it, but let me go out on a limb and say Google Glass is AWESOME. Alright you cynics, who shall cast the first stone?

      Nothing cynical -- Google already tracks your browsing via their ad network, to increase the value of the ads they sell. Remember, you're their product, not their customer.

      Add to that warehouse of information about you online all the things you do offline, and you become a much more valuable product for them to sell.

    12. Re:Awesome by ElectricTurtle · · Score: 1

      Speaking as somebody who dispassionately discharges a laptop battery almost completely twice a day on weekdays, you sound like a twit with potential mental health problems. Find a therapist.

      --
      I support the Slashcott and will not be reading or commenting from 2/10/14 to 2/17/14. Beta is steaming pile of dog shit
    13. Re:Awesome by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Sounds like what Glass is really good at is revealing you as a jealous, insecure little twat.

    14. Re:Awesome by BasilBrush · · Score: 1

      YOU don't read the articles because you're a dumbass. And you'll stay a dumbass because you continue to avoid reading things that would inform you.

      WE do read TFA. That's why we know what we are talking about.

  9. Weird by stewsters · · Score: 1

    "may not "serve or include any advertisements" and they "may not charge" users to download apps for the device."

    "not permitted to sell users' personal and private information for the fulfillment of advertising needs. "

    I'm confused. So its a hobbyist only device?

    1. Re:Weird by stewsters · · Score: 1

      Wait, you can still charge subscription fees for your app's service.

  10. "not supposed to" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The big story has nothing to do with people "not supposed to" resell or lend, it's that Google will attack people who do it, and have put some kind of kill switch the in device.

    I do not ever knowingly buy things with kill switches. In fact, I normally never (knowingly) do any sort of business with any company that has been detected doing that sort of thing, as it immediately proves lack of good faith on the part of the seller. (e.g. I won't ever buy anything with a Sony logo on it, regardless of whether that particular product is yet known to be defecting or user-hostile.)

    This is very serious; it's not a matter of Google flirting with a poorly-defined thin-yet-blurry line; with this one single policy, Google has adopted a "Be Evil" strategy. Now I've got to figure out whether or not (and how) to stop using their search capabilities. That is the one (and only) Google service not easily given up.

    1. Re:"not supposed to" by DragonWriter · · Score: 1

      The big story has nothing to do with people "not supposed to" resell or lend, it's that Google will attack people who do it, and have put some kind of kill switch the in device.

      Its dependent for on external resources. There doesn't need to be a kill switch on the device to disable it, all Google has to do is pull it from the authorized list on the servers it relies on.

    2. Re:"not supposed to" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      If Glass relies on specific servers, then it's a broken concept from the beginning, just another XBox or iPhone. As if the world needs another one of those. Looks like a bunch of us (I'll plead guilty right now) got all starry-eyed over the cool hardware, ignoring the elephant in the room, where no matter how good the hardware is, it's doomed to be an overall shitty/crippled product. You don't have to call it a "kill switch" if you don't want to, but that's what all specific-server dependencies always are.

  11. what's the difference? and who does this benefit? by F9rDT3ZE · · Score: 4, Interesting

    what is the difference between "presenting ads to Google glass users" and "internet browsing"? Is Glass going to come with built-in ad-blockers for all web pages? Are they going to build special software to prohibit Glass-specific advertising on web pages that are not in any kind of partnership with Glass? This seems to me like a way of controlling the advertising revenue streams for Google more than anything else, since Google's pages are larded with ads and Glass will inherently drive traffic to those pages, both inside and outside of the Glass environment. I wonder if it even raises antitrust implications, as it tremendously biases the products toward Google's advertising & commerce platforms while pushing others out.

  12. Whatever by afxgrin · · Score: 4, Insightful

    They say this now but after Microsoft or Apple sell an ad supported product for cheaper they'll change their minds quickly.

    1. Re:Whatever by BasilBrush · · Score: 2, Interesting

      That is the opposite to Apple's way, so they won't do it. And Microsoft launching new hardware isn't much of a threat to anyone.

      Google Glass will fail on it's own (lack of) merits.

    2. Re:Whatever by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Really? Because the App Store is littered with ad-supported "free" apps.

    3. Re:Whatever by afxgrin · · Score: 3, Interesting

      My point is that if it is successful as a product competitors will attempt to recreate a similar experience and may not see any issue with having ads. If ads become 'workable' into the product it will likely be used to subsidize the cost of the competing product hence making a lower priced product with similar or the same functionality. For Google to stay competitive in the long road they would likely need to implement ads. Turning on intrusive ads now would be awful if they want consumer adoption of the product.

    4. Re:Whatever by MacTO · · Score: 1

      Apple definitely use their products to sell other products. That's a big part of the motivation behind iTunes and the Mac App Store.

      I don't know if they derive revenues from it, but they have also integrated support for various email and social media services directly into their product.

      Apple doesn't seem to do this any more, but they have also bundled demonstration software with their computers. (Microsoft Office comes to mind, but I seem to recall having to remove other software.)

      So yes, Apple does use their products for marketing. It isn't as blatant as it is on some platforms, but it is there.

    5. Re:Whatever by BasilBrush · · Score: 1

      But that's not what he said. He said "after Microsoft or Apple sell an ad supported product for cheaper", and Apple don't sell ad-supported products for cheaper.

    6. Re:Whatever by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      That is the opposite to Apple's way, so they won't do it.

      The Apple Way died with Jobs. The company is running on inertia. Cook has no vision. They are going head-to-head with Samsung, which has a half-century of practice with the "design three-dozen variants and see what sells" business model. To Apple, a failed product launch is the end of the world. To Samsung, it's just another Thursday. And Samsung is just the current top dog in a whole dogpile of companies that do the exact same thing.

      Apple needs a dictator, not a CEO. It's ingrained in the culture. They are well and truly fucked without one.

  13. Keep it for themselves by BitZtream · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    Of course they don't want YOU putting random ads in stuff. THEY are going to put the ads in stuff. If you do it, they don't get any money.

    Are you guys seriously stupid enough to think they WOULDN'T do the one thing they exist to do?

    --
    Persistent Volume manager for Kubernetes - https://github.com/dwimsey/openshift-pvmanager
    1. Re:Keep it for themselves by RivenAleem · · Score: 1

      Don't you get it? They said it would only be a platform to browse the web. We all know there are no adds on the web.

  14. uh.. so what happens by gl4ss · · Score: 1

    when I go to google.com with those?

    and surely they would be taking a cut of the app sales, so no hw only vector there.
    moreover.. they don't yet have a profit vector for it.

    but don't worry, there's a very thin line between "information" and "advert" when your app exists solely for the purpose of finding nearest mcdonalds.

    --
    world was created 5 seconds before this post as it is.
    1. Re:uh.. so what happens by kcitren · · Score: 1

      and surely they would be taking a cut of the app sales, so no hw only vector there. moreover.. they don't yet have a profit vector for it.

      Huh? There are thousands of companies that make money manufacturing and selling things. Why do you assume that their only path to profit is via apps and advertising? Toyota, Vizio, Samsung, Ikea, Asus, etc. seem to be doing pretty well selling things.

  15. Yeah, riiiiiiiight by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    It'll happen. I do worry that the version Tim Maughan writes about in the short story "Havana Augmented" will become true, as well as the other stories in his Paintwork collection. Dynamic billboards activated by sensing a QR code, virtual advertising mapped to real-life surfaces, *shudder*

    Not everything needs to look like Times Square.

    1. Re:Yeah, riiiiiiiight by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Truth, man.

  16. Great! by kamapuaa · · Score: 2

    The next step is to pull all slashvertisements for Google Glass.

    --
    Slashdot: providing anti-social weirdos a soapbox, since 1997.
  17. That seems daft by ciderbrew · · Score: 1, Interesting

    If you're walking around you'd want to see what shops have to offer. Often I'll type in a very wide search in to Google maps and see whats about. If you like comedy and some cafe has a comedy place in the back which runs every other second month on a tuesday, which you'd never know about. It would be good to see that information augmented in. Set some very tight preferences so you're not being blasted with everything and you're good to go.

    Also, If the gps picks up that you are doing over 8mph it should turn off everything. Does it do that? It you're on a bus or train tough. If you go over 200mph you get a speed ticket. I'm not accepting you're on a plane.

    1. Re:That seems daft by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I don't think information relative to your search would be considered an ad in this case.

  18. Sex with Tapeworms by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    oh yeah

  19. User Agent by cosm · · Score: 1

    What about web sites that pick up on the user agent string?

    --
    'We are trying to prove ourselves wrong as quickly as possible, because only in that way can we find progress.' RPF
    1. Re:User Agent by BasilBrush · · Score: 1

      That's a thought. By that or the use of CSS media, one should be able to block Google glass users from accessing a site just as easily as optimising a site for Google glass. Another fine way of boycotting it.

    2. Re:User Agent by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Why would you do that?

  20. Why would I want the Google Glass? by Quakeulf · · Score: 0

    I have no idea why I should pay a lot for something I strap on my head to do what exactly? It's not making stuff around me levitate or otherwise make my life any more spectacular than I make it myself. It also cannot replace a strong drug effect if you are into that.

    Remember the Virtua Boy? That's what I am thinking of when I think of Google Glass. If I want a novelty item to strap to my head my money is on the Oculus Rift.

    1. Re:Why would I want the Google Glass? by DragonWriter · · Score: 1

      Presumably, from your comments, you don't want it. That's fine, you aren't the whole market.

    2. Re:Why would I want the Google Glass? by Quakeulf · · Score: 1

      Why do you want it?

    3. Re:Why would I want the Google Glass? by bhagwad · · Score: 1

      I'm a geek. I want something new because I'm excited by the technology. It's enough of a reason to start out with.

    4. Re:Why would I want the Google Glass? by Quakeulf · · Score: 1

      Proclaiming yourself to be a geek and then proceed to buy a hyped-up expensive product by a big corporation does not correlate. Want to be a real "geek" then watch anime, become a brony and get a dakimakura. Bonus points for going to cons. Extra bonus points for dressing up like your favourite character. Extra extra bonus points for ending up on Your cosplay sucks.

  21. It will have ads alright by Billly+Gates · · Score: 1

    Google adds. No one else may compete and you only buy a right to use them as they are a copy of the pair of glasses at Google. Not an actual pair etc.

    1. Re:It will have ads alright by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I'm sure this will be the case. The summary fails to mention that Google never said that they won't be allowed to show ads.

  22. Contrary to widespread thought... by rodrigoandrade · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Contrary to widespread thought, Google Glass will not be an advertising platform... yet!

    1. Re:Contrary to widespread thought... by porkThreeWays · · Score: 1

      Exactly. It will be one day, just not right now. New products need curb appeal. A cool factor. It's really hard to wow a first time user with a product filled with ads. Once they get enough users things will change. The original google search engine did the exact same thing. Once it was in common usage they started inserting "sponsored links." First you develop the technology, get everyone to use it, THEN you squeeze them.

      --
      If an officer ever threatens to taze you, say you have a pacemaker.
    2. Re:Contrary to widespread thought... by Bigby · · Score: 1

      It will only be an advertising collection platform. And this won't stop Google Glass from overlaying information about stores you are walking by with preference to ones that pay some moola.

  23. Lol by TheSkepticalOptimist · · Score: 4, Insightful

    But "sponsored notices" I am sure will be fully supported.

    --
    I haven't thought of anything clever to put here, but then again most of you haven't either.
  24. Re:Can't resell it... what?! I hope CM is okay... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Umm, isn't there a first sale law that says if this is truly a sale and not some kind of extended rental that the seller can't put limits on resales and such?

    No, and there never has been anything quite as broad as "can't put limits" on resales.

    You're probably thinking of their inability to use the court system to prevent resales. Doctrine of First Sale is what makes it so that if you buy something, resell it, and then the original seller sues you, and then you fight back in court instead of folding, then you eventually win.

    But that's the only limit on resales that the DoFS applies. It doesn't prevent technical limits.

    Furthermore, people buying this should be very careful about whatever agreements they sign. You might not even be BUYING any of these Glass things from Google at all, and if you're not, then DoFS wouldn't apply anyway, and you actually could be sued (successfully) for reselling something you never owned in the first place.

    Some precedents for that include iTunes music "sales" (which are not actually sales at all, according to the fine print). Or the Blizzard case, where -- without even signing a purchase agreemnt -- people walked into a brick'n'mortar store, grabbed a copy off a game off a shelf, anonymously paid cash for it at a register without being required to sign anything, took it home, and yet somehow magically didn't have "title" to it, according to a judge. This really happened, and nobody has amended to the law to overturn it, and it's been several years now. Thus, we all support it.

    If I buy this spy hardware, I should be able to do whatever I want with it,

    Many people say they agree, but when people vote for Congress, 99% of them appear to disagree with that idea. Thus we have DMCA, etc. Congress is definitely not on your side, on the issue of being allowed to do whatever you want with things you own.

  25. Re:dear google: by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    You speak for society? Who elected you? I think Google Glass is awesome and I can't wait till everyone has one.

  26. Riding the Wave To The MOTB by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    technology will become more and more wearable to the point where you will be an outcast (mark of the beast coming soon - humor to dissolve concern by way of the Idiocracy movie - low brows will point to it as a laugh and ridicule your faith) or deemed crazy, maybe even thrown into a puzzle factory or PMITA hotel if you're not a part of the global 'experience'.

  27. Re:Just means they will make their money another w by DragonWriter · · Score: 2

    They'll make their revenue with Google Play and Chrome Web Store store revenue, since Glass has functions that require pairing with an Android device, and Glass apps are basically (by device features) limited to being auxiliary interfaces to web services for which the primary interface will almost certainly be either a traditional web or mobile app.

  28. Re:No ads? Only until it's built up in market shar by h4rr4r · · Score: 2

    It is just a display for an android device.
    Ad blocking on and android device is pretty simple.

    You can even just install Firefox and the adblock plus extension if you only want to block web browser ads and are not rooted.

  29. Cable TV by femtobyte · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Remember how Cable TV started out with no advertisements, to give people a good reason to plunk down big wads of cash every month for stuff like what they got free over the airwaves? Remember how short that lasted, once cable acceptance picked up? This no-ads/tracking thing is just a phase to get Google Glasses in front of everyone's eyeballs; then we'll get ads full blast.

    1. Re:Cable TV by danhuby · · Score: 1

      I think I agree with that. Google are probably worried that initial sales would be hampered by the preconceived notion that it would be used for major eyespam.

    2. Re:Cable TV by h4rr4r · · Score: 2

      Remember how I canceled cable and switched to netflix? If you were not aware that stopped the advertising right quick. It's cheaper too.
      I suggest you do the same.
      Glass is just a front end for the smartphone, you can block the adds there.

    3. Re:Cable TV by femtobyte · · Score: 1

      Remember how Netflix took a couple decades to arrive after cable was already fully ad-ridden? Remember how the general public today still doesn't know how to fully ad-proof their browsers and root their cellphones, so even if a few uber-nerds slip through the cracks, Google will still have succeeded at further pushing omnipresent privacy invasion on the general public? gGlass is "just a front end for the smartphone" that gives them direct "push" capability straight to your eyeballs, and constant recording from, even when you're not whipping out the phone for intentional use; I see plenty of scope for creeping abusiveness.

      I save a bunch of money by not watching TV in the first place. But that doesn't mean that I don't think others should have better choices than whatever the corporate oligopolies offer them.

    4. Re:Cable TV by h4rr4r · · Score: 1

      Adblock plugins are generally the most popular plugin for browsers. No need to root a cellphone to install a web browser plugin.

      It is not constantly recording. The battery could never do that. It even has a warning light that lets people know when you are recording as well.

      Before netflix you could rent these round shiny disks that had videos on them without advertising. Before that they had these cartridge looking things with magnetic tape spooled up inside. Again all of this was available for those decades in between. You could also watch PBS over the air and they only had telethons some times of the year.

    5. Re:Cable TV by femtobyte · · Score: 1

      Battery life is only a minor technical hurdle, being steadily surmounted. Whatever can record for a couple hours today will be able to record all day in a few years. Anyway, Google probably doesn't need/want continuous video (yet); a frame grab every few seconds will give them a perfectly good sampling --- where you are, what brands and products you look at, what things you own, who you talk to --- on a highly granular few second basis; capturing 24FPS probably wouldn't add much more. Oh, and all those rentable/ownable things without ads: now diminishing in availability, to be replaced by the new trendy "cloud" model where everything you have is rented and streamed under whatever new terms the corporate conglomerates decide to impose on their users today.

    6. Re:Cable TV by h4rr4r · · Score: 1

      People will notice the camera turning on and off, unless you think they will hide that too.

      So don't buy that crap. Pay for applications and don't support that model. Vote with your wallet.

      Overall you sound like a conspiracy nut a little.

    7. Re:Cable TV by femtobyte · · Score: 4, Insightful

      No, the first models won't be recording all the time; no they won't hide anything. By the time Google enables recording, it'll be perfectly in the open and normal ("what kind of tinfoil-hatted nutter would care about a few frame grabs in return for all these nifty free services?") --- and it won't matter what your personal privacy votes are, because your visiting house-guests will record your life and habits for you. People choose to pay for stuff all the time --- and still get ads/tracking/intrusiveness added in to paid products. If it's a conspiracy to think that gGlass will follow the same patterns of increasing advertiser pervasiveness as TV, ebooks, music, games, credit cards, magazines, search engines, etc., then I guess I am a conspiracy nut.

    8. Re:Cable TV by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Remember how technology a decade ago was for all intents and purposes stone-age compared to what we have now?

    9. Re:Cable TV by femtobyte · · Score: 1

      Yes. I also remember all the tehcno-optimists opining on how the coming new wave of technology would uplift the common man, rending the old chains of power and privilege and corporate servitude. Instead, wealth and power is ever more concentrated than before, and corporate control of every aspect of our lives even stronger. Jobs are harder to get and lower paying. By any measure besides the diagonal size of our TVs, standards of living are falling for the overwhelming majority. So I'm not exactly an optimist that embracing the next wave of megacorporate-controlled technology is really going to be particularly beneficial to society.

  30. Re:Just means they will make their money another w by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    They will have access to search and activity data combined with a feed that shows people's whereabouts and habits. This marketing data will be worth way more than any direct advertising.

    So you're saying they'll just sell the data to 3rd party group that will spam you instead?

  31. Re:Just means they will make their money another w by Intrepid+imaginaut · · Score: 0

    That's almost certainly why they don't want you reselling it.

    They can stick their glass up their ass.

  32. OMG! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    We actually found one, the person advertisers dream about, a mindless sheep (and my apologies to all real sheep). If you pass a comedy club and you don't know what is playing... because an ad to enlarge your penis is blocking your view of the billboard TELLING you who is playing when?

    If I want to know something, I look for it, I don't need it shoved in my face because you are to dumb to look for yourself. What is it, 1995 again when people made products that would do nothing but serve users ads because everyone wants to see more ads!

    No I fucking don't. If google really manages to keep it ad free (see how long "ad free" subscriber cable lasted), I will love it just for that.

    1. Re:OMG! by ciderbrew · · Score: 1

      I don't think these glasses are for you.

  33. Re:Can't resell it... what?! I hope CM is okay... by drakaan · · Score: 5, Informative

    The no resale limitation appears to be on the developer version that is out now. If they did that with the commercial one, they would have a giant shitstorm on their hands, both PR and legal.

    --
    "Murphy was an optimist" - O'Toole's commentary on Murphy's Law
  34. Re:No ads? Only until it's built up in market shar by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Because Glass won't be jailbroken/rooted/unlocked... Just like you can't install host adblockers on iPhone/Android *rolls eyes*

  35. Ads in glass apps different from ads in browser by rs1n · · Score: 4, Informative

    Google doesn't want developers to incorporate ads into their apps for glass. Lots of app developers create a "free" version of their app that is supported through advertising. It's this particular aspect of advertising that Google is trying to prevent from happening.

    1. Re:Ads in glass apps different from ads in browser by BasilBrush · · Score: 1

      Lots of app developers create a "free" version of their app that is supported through advertising. It's this particular aspect of advertising that Google is trying to prevent from happening.

      And yet at the same time they are preventing developers for charging for software. It's like a developer magnet... pointing the wrong way.

    2. Re:Ads in glass apps different from ads in browser by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Correction, it's a STUPID developer magnet pointing the wrong way.

      A smart developer will realize that a person won't want to use Glass as their single only access to the internet. But since, as stated above, all of the stupid developers will run for the hills, that will make for significantly less competition against YOUR app. And if a person loves your app on Glass, well there's probably a damned good chance they'll want it on their smartphone/laptop/tablet/computer. THOSE one's don't have the requirement of being free or ad-free.

      And seriously, having your company associated with being on the ground floor of Glass? That's some serious name recognition potential.

      The single only thing is that they can't release a shitty app on Glass, otherwise your name will forever be associated with "the shit that you specifically want to avoid when you get these glasses". If you release something that people want and like? Well hell, you might as well be shitting gold.

  36. No Taunting! by CajunArson · · Score: 1

    DO NOT TAUNT GOOGLE GLASS!

    --
    AntiFA: An abbreviation for Anti First Amendment.
  37. Re:Just means they will make their money another w by interkin3tic · · Score: 1

    I'd wager that hardware revenue alone would make it worth it if glass is "the next big thing." I'd also wager that cutting out the middleman between google and consumers, and potentially being squeezed out such as happened with apple, makes it even more worth it. Say MS starts going around to android hardware manufacturers and saying "Okay, you won't have to pay us to license those patents you infringed on (translation: used android) if you start shipping firmware that routes every search through Bing instead of google." Apple and Facebook team up too maybe. And google starts losing users.

    Or has that already happened? I don't know, I find legal insanity either boring or infuriating, so I try to ignore it usually.

  38. Re:Just means they will make their money another w by EdZ · · Score: 1, Informative

    It's $1500 for a SoC phone of fairly basic specifications (mainly due to desired low power consumption), and an off-the-shelf display module. As long as they managed to buy the module in bulk from the OEM rather than buying a packaged end-user product from a reseller, then the majority of cost for development would be in creating the interface, not in developing the hardware. Google's voice search and Now already existed from their Android work, so it's specifically the UI they had to adapt for HUD usage. I can imagine they at least broke even selling just a few thousand.

  39. This is the company that reads our email, right? by GodfatherofSoul · · Score: 1, Interesting

    If they're not going to blast these glasses with ads then it's because they've found a better way to exploit you. Probably selling your movements, then letting local merchants spam you.

    --
    I swear to God...I swear to God! That is NOT how you treat your human!
  40. Wait, wait, wait. LEND? by Conspiracy_Of_Doves · · Score: 1

    You can't LEND it to anyone? How strict is that? Do they mean you can't let someone try it out for a few minutes? And is that just for this first round of people, and they'll loosen the terms once it really goes public?

    1. Re:Wait, wait, wait. LEND? by admdrew · · Score: 1

      In the context of the terms they've written out, I assume "lend" means for a longer period of time than simply letting someone try them on. It's usually understood that lending an item to someone is letting them use it for its intended purpose, like lending a spare cell phone to someone to use until they get a new one, instead of just handing someone your shiny new cell phone to show it off.

    2. Re:Wait, wait, wait. LEND? by Sockatume · · Score: 1

      Yes. It's early hardware being given out to developers, it's normal that people aren't allowed to (say) loan their company's PS4 out to their mate's stag do. At least not if they like having kneecaps.

      --
      No kidding!!! What do you say at this point?
    3. Re:Wait, wait, wait. LEND? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      This, plus they paid for them, so they will get to keep them after the special deveolper program ends, at which point they can do what they want with them, sell them, give them away, whatever.

    4. Re:Wait, wait, wait. LEND? by amRadioHed · · Score: 1

      I would guess that their definition of lending is allowing someone else to use your Glass with their own Google account. Anything else would be unenforceable anyway.

      --
      We hope your rules and wisdom choke you / Now we are one in everlasting peace
  41. Re:Just means they will make their money another w by prelelat · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I think you're totally correct,

    While apple has been about the walled garden, google has been about the green valley with large high hills surrounding that discourage you to leave(but you can). Google is into building devices and products that make you use their other services that generate more value through advertisement and data collection. Google doesn't need to get your money from google glass after you buy it, because chances are you are going to use google.com, gmail and probably other services as well from them. These as we all know already track the information they are banning on glass anyways. The device is made to drive users to the other advertisement revenue streams and the larger the adoption of it(like the android phones) the larger their market share is for other services.

    Most of the people I know that use an android phone use gmail and google search built in as well as their play store and some of the other apps. This is the driving force behind android and glass.

  42. Hardware Only? False Conclusion by Bob9113 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Seems like Google is going for hardware-only revenue on this one.

    That conclusion is not supported by the fact that Google does not allow advertising on Google Glass. Google Glass is not exclusively an output device, it is also a sensor array. The data collected by the sensor array would be very valuable to Google's surveillance and analytics programs. Whether Google will store, use, or distribute any of the data collected by the Google Glass sensors has not, as far as I know, been addressed.

    Generally speaking, Google seems to have a very solid understanding that it is inexpensive to store data and a significant opportunity cost to discard it.

  43. Anonymous BS? by sribe · · Score: 2

    The internet company has explicitly and openly said that the Glass platform should and must be clean and clear of any ads whatsoever...

    Really? When? Where? I cannot find any reference whatsoever to Google making that statement, only references, like this one, to an anonymous source claiming it. I feel confident that if Google had "explicitly and openly" said any such thing that I would have been able to well, you know, google it ;-)

    Unmentioned here is the fact that Google is also forbidding developers to charge for their software, leaving developers with no revenue model at all. I imagine this is intended as an exploratory phase, and there is intent to in the future allow some revenue model for developers, but not giving any clue as to how developers might be allowed to make some money seems like a really good way to stifle development right from the outset.

    1. Re:Anonymous BS? by Sockatume · · Score: 1

      It's in the developer guidelines if you'd take five minutes to look at them.

      --
      No kidding!!! What do you say at this point?
    2. Re:Anonymous BS? by sribe · · Score: 1

      It's in the developer guidelines if you'd take five minutes to look at them.

      Where?

      Seriously, googling "google glass developer guidelines" turns up several of Google's documents on the use of the APIs, none of which mention this--only the restriction that developers may not present ads.

      Googling the exact text used in the summary turns up only anonymous reports, nothing from Google.

      So where are these guidelines (which are apparently invisible to google searches)??? Where exactly has Google "explicitly and openly said that the Glass platform should and must be clean and clear of any ads whatsoever"???

  44. Re:Just means they will make their money another w by Cinder6 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    It's important to note that only third-party developers are prohibited from placing ads; Google isn't bound by the same rules. My tinfoil-hat conspiracy theory says they want to get people used to Glass first, and then start slowly implementing ads until they feel commonplace and accepted. If Glass is plastered with ads from the beginning, no one will use it, and Google knows this.

    That said, it would be great if it never has ads. I would be willing to pay more (were I in the market for Glass) for no ads on a device such as this.

    --
    If you can't convince them, convict them.
  45. Re:Just means they will make their money another w by bfandreas · · Score: 1

    They will also make money by having shops listed on Google Maps.

    Rumor has it that they want to sell the consumer version at 750 bucks. If they sell enough of them then they won't be selling at a loss, I guess. If they somewhat make that price point I will get one. After I have sorted out how to deal with my prescription glasses, that is.

    --
    20 minutes into the future
  46. Re:Can't resell it... what?! I hope CM is okay... by Senior+Frac · · Score: 2

    Well... of course you can sell it if you want. It would not be against the law to do so. You did buy the hardware. It will, however, stop working for the new owner at some point in the future.

    Let's be clear. "You're not allowed" does not mean men from black helicopters coming through your skylight denying you your resale rights.

  47. Re:dear google: by czernabog · · Score: 1

    Dear TheGratefulNet:

    You may not be willing to accept the 'always capturing video and audio' concept (and neither am I); but the world, as in the vast majority of people, will most definitely welcome it.

    You can count on it.

  48. Re:Just means they will make their money another w by Dr.Dubious+DDQ · · Score: 1, Troll
    "They will have access to search and activity data combined with a feed that shows people's whereabouts and habits. This marketing data will be worth way more than any direct advertising."

    Bingo. Hence the "no resale, renting, lending, letting other people touch, etc." provisions in their "agreement" - this device appears to be intended to "train" users to be happy sending all of their information to Google, but this requires Google to be able to always "know" who is using which device at all times in order for the data to be fully useful to them (for "personalization", of course.)

    In other words, this is like Facebook(tm), but even more so (and you have to pay $1500 for the honor of feeding Google's files on your behavior, which helps the illusion that THEY are giving YOU something, and not vice-versa.)

  49. Oh, I see... by gottabeme · · Score: 2

    The internet company has explicitly and openly said that the Glass platform should and must be clean and clear of any ads whatsoever, because the technology is designed to facilitate internet browsing and other related activities, therefore, the featured podium cannot be used to advertise products as it will cause the user experience to diminish

    So it's designed for internet browsing and stuff...like smartphones???

    I'm so sick of ads taking up my tiny screen space, my pathetic battery life, and my worthless monthly bandwidth. This is the worst in apps made by every random developer who thinks he's entitled to make a constant revenue stream from throwing together a piddly app to do something basic like a kitchen timer. I even had an app that was supposed to be an app-store release of the ICS camera app...and it had an ad on the screen when you were using the camera! All he did was release the ICS camera app!

    How about standing up to these developers, Google? Huh?

    --
    "Those who consume the bulk of goods are those who make them. We must never forget this secret of our prosperity."
    1. Re:Oh, I see... by captjc · · Score: 1

      The best way to stand up to these developers is to not use their product. There are thousands of apps, very few are so specialized or esoteric that they can't be replaced by something that better fits your needs or simply deleted outright. Granted, the ad-free apps probably cost a few dollars, but it is a price well paid for an ad-free experience.

      Then again, if it is something as trivial as the latest iFart application, you would probably be better off not downloading it in the first place.

      --
      Slow Down Cowboy! It's been 1 hour, 47 minutes since you last successfully posted a comment
    2. Re:Oh, I see... by timmyf2371 · · Score: 1

      I have two versions of my apps in the app marketplaces. One is free and supported by ads that aren't too intrusive. The other costs money and is ad free. That way, I give potential users the choice of either seeing ads, paying a nominal amount, or simply not downloading the app at all.

      You're right, us random developers aren't entitled to make constant revenue streams for devising basic apps, but when many of these basic apps you refer to are either free with ads or cost 69p (99c) without, sometimes the cost of the time it would take for me to reinvent the wheel just isn't worth it.

      --

      Backup not found: (A)bort (R)etry (P)anic
    3. Re:Oh, I see... by gottabeme · · Score: 1

      This is why I am so enthusiastic about FOSS. Software is best when it is owned not by one person but by the community. It's like a garden in which caretakers come and go, but the garden lives on. And it's not necessary for everyone to make their own, or new, gardens--the community garden is big enough for everyone. At the same time, anyone is free to cut a stem and plant it in either their own garden or another part of the community garden, to graft one plant onto another at-will.

      The point is that most software issues are already solved problems. It's a waste to write one file-syncing app after another for one platform after another when rsync and unison (and even git) are pretty much done. It's a waste to make 50 kitchen timer apps, leaving users to spend hours hunting and trying to find one that best does the job, when a few apps could be maintained by communities, meeting everyone's needs for the foreseeable future, being adapted to new platforms with minimal effort, not requiring users to repurchase, rediscover, or reevaluate basic functionality over and over again.

      Is it not ok to suggest that some of these basic functions should just be done, period, and that no one deserves to or needs to make a constant revenue stream off reinventing the wheel again and again? It's almost like the arguments about old media and copyright: does an "artist" really deserve to make royalties forever because he made one recording? Many think so, but I don't.

      --
      "Those who consume the bulk of goods are those who make them. We must never forget this secret of our prosperity."
    4. Re:Oh, I see... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You are the one with the entitlement issue. If they took the time to build it and you didn't pay for it then guess what, the developer is entitled to slap ads on it. To think otherwise is the mindset of spoiled child.

      Don't want ads? Pay for the app. Does the app still have ads or you don't like the ads it has? Then don't use the fucking app. Nobody is holding a gun to your head.

  50. Illegal. Plainly so. At least here. by vikingpower · · Score: 1, Informative

    In the EU it is not legal to try and forbid anyone to resell items acquired by any means whatsoever. You buy it, you become the owner, you can do with it what you want: resell it, destroy it, lend it, rent it out, give it away. Google's gonna have a hard time with Euro Commissary iron Nellie ( Neelie Smit-Kroes, who already severely flogged them ).

    --
    Religous speak to God. Insane are spoken to by God. When all shut up, one can finally hear Shostakovich in peace
    1. Re:Illegal. Plainly so. At least here. by swillden · · Score: 2

      In the EU it is not legal to try and forbid anyone to resell items acquired by any means whatsoever. You buy it, you become the owner, you can do with it what you want: resell it, destroy it, lend it, rent it out, give it away. Google's gonna have a hard time with Euro Commissary iron Nellie ( Neelie Smit-Kroes, who already severely flogged them ).

      I wonder if there aren't any exceptions for limited-access preview items. This first generation of Google Glass isn't available for sale to the public, and buyers of the Explorer edition have to agree to some things before they can purchase them.

      Also, I don't believe people from outside the United States were eligible to apply for the Explorers program. Perhaps the EU law you mention doesn't include any exceptions allowing Google to impose these restrictions, and that's why it was limited to US residents. Or maybe not. Google tends to do everything in the US first anyway.

      I'm sure the devices available for public purchase won't have any resale restrictions, once those arrive.

      --
      Note to ACs: I usually delete AC replies without reading them. If you want to talk to me, log in.
    2. Re:Illegal. Plainly so. At least here. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      This is blatantly not true. If you get one from Google in exchange for money and signing a contract, they can make any requirements they like. There may be no transfer of ownership, even. They are not going to have any harder a time than Sony do when they charge you $X,000 for a development kit that remains their property and is merely loaned to you.

      Armchair lawyers, pffft.

    3. Re:Illegal. Plainly so. At least here. by dkf · · Score: 1

      In the EU it is not legal to try and forbid anyone to resell items acquired by any means whatsoever.

      But if it is formally a rental agreement (whether or not for money) then you are naturally prohibited from reselling. It's not yours to sell. Of course, in that case you'd have a different set of rights instead. The problem only comes with scum who try to claim that you have none of the rights of ownership or of being a lessee, even when you're holding the device in your hands and have given quite a bit of money over for that privilege; it's that which got totally slapped down.

      --
      "Little does he know, but there is no 'I' in 'Idiot'!"
    4. Re:Illegal. Plainly so. At least here. by vikingpower · · Score: 1

      You are right and I do agree. I should have mentioned that my comment was restricted to sales.

      --
      Religous speak to God. Insane are spoken to by God. When all shut up, one can finally hear Shostakovich in peace
    5. Re:Illegal. Plainly so. At least here. by Overzeetop · · Score: 1

      Well, that's not exactly what they're doing. They will argue - probably successfully - that they are selling you the glasses. They will lose hands down on the "you can't transfer..." clause. But, they'll still "win" as they are also providing a service - the glass service - separately. If you resell them, the service does not transfer - just the hardware. A quick google (ha!) of EU warranty law didn't turn up whether or not they have to warranty re-sold items to subsequent purchasers for the initial 2 year period.

      I don't expect this to last past the initial offering stage, just to keep the glasses from being whored off on ebay. Once they're commonplace you'll be able to transfer them and just sign in with your always-being-tracked gmail account.

      --
      Is it just my observation, or are there way too many stupid people in the world?
  51. Re:Just means they will make their money another w by amRadioHed · · Score: 3, Insightful

    They don't want you selling it because it's a development device that is only being sent to a select group of people. Your reason doesn't even make sense, if it was sold the new owner would obviously use it with their own account.

    --
    We hope your rules and wisdom choke you / Now we are one in everlasting peace
  52. Re:dear google: by i+kan+reed · · Score: 1

    dear TheGratefulNet:
    the world is not willing to acceept your 'always wanting privacy' concept. we are rightfully annoyed at your persistence and insistence that the majority of people Care(tm).

    you are clearly trying to incite fears in a populace that is too uncaring to give a shit but let me state again, clearly and unambiguously:

    MOST. PEOPLE. WANT.

    it was an interesting idea for 'self-aware people' but just not really fitting into what we, as a society, so clearly want.

    please just stop trying to force the issue. you come off as jerks when you do that.

  53. The no-reselling is FUD by geraud · · Score: 1

    Keep in mind the glasses are currently only distributed as a developer device, much like an SDK. Not a consumer device. The no reselling restriction present in the EULA is very similar to those applicable to SDK in other markets.

  54. Re:Just means they will make their money another w by 93+Escort+Wagon · · Score: 2

    I have a hard time believing that they will make all their revenue on hardware alone.

    That was an unsupported assumption being made by the submitter.

    Google isn't allowing third-party app developers to display ads. That's completely different from stating that THEY won't display ads or incorporate paid partners into whatever "services" they offer on the devices. Heck, for all we know they'll require a Google+ membership before a company will be included in their listing of nearby entities.

    --
    #DeleteChrome
  55. Google can still run ads by Animats · · Score: 1

    Google isn't forbidding advertising on Glass. They're forbidding non-Google advertising.

  56. You had one job by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    "Seems like Google is going for hardware-only revenue on this one."
    Right.

  57. Re:This is the company that reads our email, right by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    If they're not going to blast these glasses with ads then it's because they've found a better way to exploit you. Probably selling your movements, then letting local merchants spam you.

    Eh. If automatically scanning your e-mail to post ads on the side bothers you, use an IMAP client so you don't see the ads, and encrypt your mail so nobody but the recipient can read it.

    There are so many things to bitch about regarding google, I really don't understand why people care about the one innocuous thing they do.

  58. Re:dear google: by bhagwad · · Score: 1

    I'm a geek. I'm too excited about the technology and what I can do with it to give a flying fuck about the "societal and cultural implications".

    No one's forcing you to buy Google Glass. Don't worry - no one will come and shove them down your throat. So I don't get what exactly your problem is.

  59. Re:This is the company that reads our email, right by bhagwad · · Score: 1

    Lol. It's hilarious to see people's paranoid rantings.

    FYI - Google would be utterly stupid to allow merchants to spam users. Or even sell their data to them.

  60. Re:Just means they will make their money another w by Threni · · Score: 1

    > They'll make their revenue with Google Play and Chrome Web Store store
    > revenue

    They can't sell apps, either.

  61. Re:dear google: by czernabog · · Score: 1

    Don't worry - no one will come and shove them down your throat

    Not literally, anyway... Figuratively, yes they will.

  62. Re:dear google: by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    WHERE DO COME UP WITH THIS SHIT!!!

    seriously! its not always on, constantly recording, the battery would last a couple hours tops. for it to last all day, you'll be able to record a little video, take some pictures, use navigation a little and receive notification in the upper corner of your FOV thats it.

  63. Prevent a Siri by tuppe666 · · Score: 3, Interesting

    http://www.inquisitr.com/256025/steve-wozniak-says-apple-ruined-siri-technology-after-acquisition/ Here is Steve Wozniak showing how siri was destroyed by Apple advertising “What are the five largest lakes in California?” and “What are the prime numbers greater than 87?” (91). To which Wozniak replied, “It’s incredible. It’s like it understands ‘greater than.’”

    Wozniak also notes that his former question about California Lakes now brings up lakefront properties while his question about prime numbers now displays information about prime ribs

    1. Re:Prevent a Siri by ceoyoyo · · Score: 2

      Let's see:

      5 largest notable lakes by surface area in California (US State)
      1 Salton Sea 950 km^2
      2 Lake Tahoe 499 km^2
      3 Goose Lake 380 km^2
      4 Honey Lake 190 km^2
      5 Mono Lake 180 km^2

      "89, 97, 101, 103, 107, 109, 113, 127, 131, 137, 139, 149, 151, 157, 163, 167 173, 179, 181, 191... (infinity primes)"

      Looks like they fixed it.

  64. Re:No ads? Only until it's built up in market shar by 93+Escort+Wagon · · Score: 3, Insightful

    The relevant quote in the article is "At the moment, there are no plans..."..

    --
    #DeleteChrome
  65. Re:This is the company that reads our email, right by swillden · · Score: 1

    Probably selling your movements

    Google doesn't sell any user data.

    --
    Note to ACs: I usually delete AC replies without reading them. If you want to talk to me, log in.
  66. Re:Just means they will make their money another w by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Why do you have a hard time believing it? Apple is a hardware company and makes money hand over fist. If you have hardware that people want at a good profit margin, you can very easily make truckloads of money through hardware alone.

    Your speculation at the end may be worth noting if they didn't already have location/search data from hundreds of millions of Android phones. Some Glass data thrown in there from people who likely already have Android phones will be inconsequential.

  67. The appeal of Google Glass by onyxruby · · Score: 1

    I think I have figured out the appeal of Google Glass. People saw Terminator 2 and remember all the information the terminator had at his 'eyeballs' and thought it was really, really cool. Google glass is an attempt to make this happen, next up Google Robot.

    They already have to the OS of course, it will be simple to port 'droid' to it's next version that we'll call 'robot'. It's a small and light weight OS that can run on a variety of hardware platforms and was meant for one shape but adapted to another. It will adapt well to it's future cyborg form without a lot of expected difficulties. It features the following advantages ready for production today:

    The operating system is made for remote management and updating without human intervention.
    Many programs are available and can be readily downloaded as needed for a variety of situations as needed.
    It has fairly good battery life and can be recharged via USB ports which are everywhere.
    It's open source and so it can be modified by anyone/thing.

    Other related developments:
    Drones are all over the place, they can even fly jumbo jets without human pilots now.
    We already have Google Car, so autonomous Priuses are here to bore everyone to death already.
    Google fiber is being rolled out to allow for a nice robust network that humiliates all other providers in the US

    The only logical conclusion? The founders of Google are entirely too fond of the Terminator movies and are planning on releasing Google Skynet to take over the world. Once Google decides to purchase SpaceX and start launching their own Google Satellites it's time to run for the hills...

    1. Re:The appeal of Google Glass by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Couple them to an "assault" rifle and away you go.

  68. Re:Just means they will make their money another w by DrEldarion · · Score: 2

    Those terms are only on the test, development devices. It's ridiculously unlikely that they will be on the retail version.

  69. Re:This is the company that reads our email, right by swillden · · Score: 1

    Probably selling your movements

    Google doesn't sell any user data.

    Actually, slight correction, I believe the Google privacy policy does allow selling of aggregated data. I should have said Google doesn't sell any individual user data.

    Also, disclaimer: I work for Google but don't have any inside information about this. My comments are based on the published privacy policy.

    --
    Note to ACs: I usually delete AC replies without reading them. If you want to talk to me, log in.
  70. Re:Just means they will make their money another w by pesho · · Score: 1

    The app developers will not be displaying ads on glass, but this doesn't mean that Google will not make add revenue from this device. I can see at least two ways to that: 1. The information they gather on you from the device will probably be used to increase the value of the targeted ads on their other platforms: google search, Google+, Gmail. 2. They can can show on top of the search (like they do in google search) or mark more prominently on the maps paying businesses. Some developers on android seem to do well without selling ads, so they shouldn't be affected by this rule. Others that distribute for free and rely on flashy adds, will have to drop out are make their offerings attractive enough for the users to pay fro them.

  71. Re:Just means they will make their money another w by tlhIngan · · Score: 1, Troll

    I have a hard time believing that they will make all their revenue on hardware alone. They will have access to search and activity data combined with a feed that shows people's whereabouts and habits. This marketing data will be worth way more than any direct advertising.

    No, Google is not using Glass to sell the OWNERS of Glass ads. That might happen eventually, but a more valuable service is being performed by Glass owners for Google. Namely the gather of information on other people THROUGH your glass. Sell an ad for Glass - you just get the owner, who's just a tiny part of the population. However, that person may encounter hundreds of people on the street daily - gathering information on them would generate far more returns.

    After all, Google has already announced they'll identify people based on their faces and clothing, and probably use that information to tie into what they already have on you (matching you captured with your Google account, say).

    A Glass user walks to a restaurant for lunch and casually ends up scanning all the patrons. Google now can sell ads to competing restaurants and deals for that restaurant to all those people.

    Naturally, you cannot hinder the adoption of Glass by having developers spew ads at users - it will kill Glass

  72. Re:This is the company that reads our email, right by ceoyoyo · · Score: 1

    "FYI - Google would be utterly stupid to allow merchants to spam users. Or even sell their data to them."

    Of course they would. That's what Google does to make money.

  73. Service provider != End User by DragonWriter · · Score: 3, Informative

    Hmmm, perhaps in your country EULA doesn't stand for End User License Agreement?

    No, but in my country the app developer isn't the "End User", and the terms and conditions of an API service agreement are not a "License Agreement".

    The only part that the API agreement and an EULA have in common is that they are both "agreements".

    1. Re:Service provider != End User by AvitarX · · Score: 1

      I would almost certainly think the terms and conditions to an API are a "License Agreement" (giving license to the use of resources), but they are also obviously not the end user (as they are making things for other users)

      --
      Wow, sent an e-mail as suggested when clicking on "use classic" banner, and got a fast response that addressed my msg
  74. No resale? No sale. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Can't think of (m)any other $1500 items that you can't resell. Given that its a new technology and there's the upgrade cycle to factor in, I sure as hell would not drop $1500 on this.

  75. Re:Just means they will make their money another w by ElectricTurtle · · Score: 3, Insightful

    They are giving you something, otherwise not only would nobody pay for it, they wouldn't use it even if it were free. I get so sick of all the something-for-nothing entitlement attitude that pervades society these days. Heaven forbid that companies actually make money to pay their costs, employees, and have some kind of, you know, profit for their shareholders. Google does this by selling data, boo fucking hoo. Meanwhile the people giving them data get in return free (huge) email, free phone service, free online storage, free office-oriented web apps, etc. etc.

    For glass they get all sorts of services delivered in real time in a non-obtrusive but always visible way. Some people will find this useful enough to BOTH pay for and give Google data. If people don't know what's really involved, whose fault is that really? Go into any court and argue 'but your honor, I didn't read the contract I signed' and see how far that goes. You'll be lucky if they don't laugh at you while dismissing your case. People need to be responsible for themselves, and stop expecting that "free" means they give nothing. It just means they don't have to tender money. Everything beyond that is up to contract terms. Ugh. I blame parents. My parents sure as hell didn't let me grow up thinking I was owed anything, or that I could just flop around the world hoping somebody else would be responsible for my interests/rights. Fucking grow up people. Being an adult is more than just age, you have to take control of your own life and go to the trouble of understanding the framework you live in.

    And all you wankers who defend the ignorant, knock it off. You're not helping them.

    --
    I support the Slashcott and will not be reading or commenting from 2/10/14 to 2/17/14. Beta is steaming pile of dog shit
  76. Re:This is the company that reads our email, right by ankhank · · Score: 1

    Google has nothing except user data to sell.
    They may not disclose individual data.
    But they definitely sell it.

    Google got their approach backward.
    If they'd stayed with search, they could've charged companies by how successfully, quickly, easily, and uniquely people -found- the company's products when they wanted to solve a problem or fill a need and went searching for good answers.

    Make what you sell good, and well and accurately and easily described, in a way that explains what need it satisfies -- and search will enable people to find it easily; Google should have gone the route of finding a way to charge for the success Google provided the company -- success at being found.

    Companies that make crap, poorly described, misleading stuff that needs advertising -- not stuff you want to find -- is the model they chose instead.

    My contribution: block all the ads I can, and resolve never to buy -anything- that gets pushed in my face when I don't want it.
    If you want me to buy something from you, describe it clearly and fully and if I need it, I'll be able to find it.

    Killfile web ads now, same as it was used for Usenet posts.
    If it makes you angry or crazy or distracted and wastes your time --- Killfile it, AdBlock it, NoScript it.
    Don't get caught by the crap, ignore the crap.

  77. Re:dear google: by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Simple solution - carry around a can of spray paint.

  78. Re:what's the difference? and who does this benefi by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    This product isn't designed for web browsing - it's supposed to provide a simple, transparent HUD over the real world, not let you browse porn as you walk down the street.

  79. Maybe a twist on the old saying by codepigeon · · Score: 1

    There is a saying the goes something like "don't attribute to malice which can be explained by stupidity".

    I wonder if their decision is based on my twist on that saying "don't attribute to kindness that which can be explained by avoiding liability and bad press". Perhaps they dont want to be caught showing ads to the first person who gets hit by a bus because his/her focus was on the display watching a sexy ad and not the world around them?

  80. Re:Just means they will make their money another w by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Interesting

    It's not about active ads. I'm sure they'll get revenue for passive advertising. You're wearing glass, you search for a restaurant, you get a list of local restaurants with directions... I can see pretty easy ways to embed ads into that whole process, and display USEFUL ads.

    Most folks don't have problems with advertising that helps them find what they're looking for.

  81. Google and the Law by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Google, despite actually being an arm of the NSA in reality, doesn't get to set the laws. With 'Google Glass' we have the whole product vs service issue again.

    For 'Google Glass' to be a service, it must meet certain criteria.
    Either:
    1) those using Google Glass must make regular payments to be allowed to continue the service, or
    2) after a fixed period of time, you must return 'Google Glass' back to Google or an agent of Google.

    By LAW, T&C cannot convert a normal product sale into a service. You cannot say "we've sold you this product with no service requirements of continuous payments or return after a fixed period, but we want it back if you break our terms". First sale doctrine prevents such abuses.

    Now, for you dumbo betas that still don't get it, there is NOTHING preventing Google saying "you can rent 'Google Glass' for 50 dollars a month". That way, Google benefits from offering a 'service'. But Google CANNOT say "buy Google Glass for 1500 dollars, but by the way you forfeit your first sale doctrine rights".

    The real purpose of Google Glass is to extend Streetview visual intelligence collection into interior areas. It is part of the '1984' style "no privacy anywhere" initiative that we see also pursued by massive use of outdoor surveillance cameras, propaganda of shows like 'Big Brother', and devices like the always-on cameras of Microsoft's Kinnect 2 'gaming' peripheral.

    The 'no ads' propaganda is also a nonsense. This would be like a monitor company 'prohibiting' websites from showing ads on the LCD monitors it sells. The 'no ads' rubbish is simply an attempt to make the product seem more appealing to the more gullible betas.

    One might think Google would be concerned about the growing 'backlash' against Google Glass, but nothing could be further from the truth. StreetView cameras were opposed by the vast majority of citizens in all nations subject to such projects, but allowed Google to help craft new laws in those nations expanding the rights of the State to spy on its citizens. Google, via propaganda on sites like this, fashion, and bribing politicians, will massively expand the 'acceptance' of spy cameras in all facets of our lives.

  82. Re:Just means they will make their money another w by DragonWriter · · Score: 2

    They can't sell apps, either.

    First, I think you lost track of context, and are confused about "they" -- GP was about how Google would make revenue, and Google most certainly can sell apps through the Chrome Web Store and the Google Play store, and make money from them in exactly the way described.

    Second, even if you were (as I suspect) mistaking GP for a post about Glass app developers, you'd still be wrong: they can also make money from apps by selling mobile or Chrome Web Store (or iOS App Store, or other) apps for services for which the Glass app that enhances the same service is a selling point. They can't charge for the Glass app itself or charge an additional fee for access to the Glass features in another service, but nothing stops them from selling a service (whether the other user interface is web, mobile, or both) which has Glass features as a selling point to drive sales, where the Glass app that connects to the service is free and no extra charge is levied for access to the Glass features.

  83. Re:Just means they will make their money another w by porkThreeWays · · Score: 2

    They are going to eat some costs. This is like video game console development. You eat some costs upfront to get the entire ecosystem out there. They did the same thing with Android. Facebook did the exact same thing. If the platform is a cesspool of ads, no one will want to use it. Once it's in widespread use they can do what they want with it. I doubt they have a lot of interest in developing hardware either. They want to get the ecosystem into widespread usage any way possible, then take a step back and be the masters of that ecosystem, letting everyone else do the work for them. Then they'll begin figuring out how to integrate ads, but that is 5 years away I'm sure. Ads are like step 30 and they've just barely reached step 1.

    --
    If an officer ever threatens to taze you, say you have a pacemaker.
  84. Re:Just means they will make their money another w by fox171171 · · Score: 1

    Which is why they don't want you to sell or even loan them to anyone else. It would mess up the database they have on you.

  85. Re:dear google: by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    People do NOT want a camera in their face, 24/7.

    When these start going out to the general public, they will be banned in a growing number of venues. Yes, everybody has a camera phone. They don't hold it up in your face 24/7.

    Gonna be some beatings over them, too. Google had better have a LARGE defense fund set up over the inevitable lawsuits that result.

  86. Re:Just means they will make their money another w by BasilBrush · · Score: 1, Troll

    google has been about the green valley with large high hills

    ... the incinerator at one end, the toxic waste dump at the other, and a highway lined with billboards between the two. But it's not as expensive to live there as somewhere nice.

  87. Re:Just means they will make their money another w by BasilBrush · · Score: 2

    Absolutely. It's not needed. They know who they are spying on by which Google account it's logged in to.

  88. Re:Just means they will make their money another w by BasilBrush · · Score: 0, Troll

    For glass they get all sorts of services delivered in real time in a non-obtrusive but always visible way.

    Non obtrusive? How more obtrusive can it get than a camera and a video screen stuck on someone's face.

    I don't know anyone that would find it acceptable to converse with an asshole wearing one of these.

    Glasshole.

  89. Re:Just means they will make their money another w by vlueboy · · Score: 2

    Reminds me of watching commercial- and float-free youtube before google's acquisition.

  90. Re:This is the company that reads our email, right by bhagwad · · Score: 1

    Google keeps its data for itself. It doesn't give its most valuable assets to anyone no matter how high the price. It would be absurdly stupid to do that. Not to mention against their very obvious privacy policies.

    But even without the policy in place, it's just a bad business decision. Google's entire business model is based on trust. If users feel they can't trust Google with the information they give them, they'll stop using their services.

    Wake me up when they start giving my information to third parties. Till then, it's just paranoid rantings.

  91. Re:dear google: by BasilBrush · · Score: 1

    Just like you can count on everybody buying a Segway because they are too lazy to walk.... hey, wait a minute.

  92. Re:dear google: by BasilBrush · · Score: 1

    MOST. PEOPLE. WANT.

    You need to get out more. Most people haven't got a clue what it is. And if they see people wearing them they'll think they're assholes.

  93. Temporary UNFORTUNATELY by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    It's only temporary. As soon as Google gets it substantially saturated on the market, they will change their minds.

  94. Re:dear google: by BasilBrush · · Score: 1

    Don't worry - no one will come and shove them down your throat.

    Well that's one of two places where owners are going to find them shoved if they aren't very careful about where they use them.

    Selfish mobile phones users in cinemas have nothing on the potential for jerks to be annoying with Google glass.

  95. Re:dear google: by bhagwad · · Score: 1

    As long as its a public place, others will just have to shut up and put up with it. If it's a private venue, then the owners have the right to lay down whatever rules they want of course.

  96. Re:Can't resell it... what?! I hope CM is okay... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Looks like someone RTFAed.

    You must be new here.

  97. Shows How Messed Up Our Society Is by Digital+Vomit · · Score: 1

    Google Inc has lately told app developers that they are not allowed to present ads to Google Glass users and they are also not permitted to sell users' personal and private information for the fulfillment of advertising needs.

    Decisions like this should, by law, be in the hands of the users.

    --
    Modern copyright is theft of culture from everyone and it retards the progress of the useful arts and sciences.
  98. Re:dear google: by BasilBrush · · Score: 1

    As long as its a public place, others will just have to shut up and put up with it.

    Live in a gated community do you? No, other people don't have to shut up and put up with it. Their freedom to protest at your public use of Google glass is just as great as your freedom to use it.

  99. Re:No ads? Only until it's built up in market shar by DragonWriter · · Score: 1

    It is just a display for an android device

    It is not "a display device for an Android device" (with or without the "just"), it doesn't require an Android device. It has some features which can leverage a paired Android device, but mostly is a device that ties to web-based services (both Google and third-party via the Mirror API.)

  100. Re:dear google: by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Yeah, people totally freaked about the bazillion other cameras already installed in fixed locations.

  101. Re:Just means they will make their money another w by Swampash · · Score: 1

    The Terms don't say "no ads". They say "no third-party ads allowed in this Developer Preview". The loopholes don't need to be pointed out, do they?

  102. Re:Just means they will make their money another w by cellocgw · · Score: 2

    They can stick their glass up their ass

    Great idea: then they'll be transmitting livelink goatse 24/7. Thanks a lot!

    --
    https://app.box.com/WitthoftResume Code: https://github.com/cellocgw
  103. Re:dear google: by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Google had better have a LARGE defense fund set up over the inevitable lawsuits that result.

    Yeah, I'm sure Google will be *really* worried about lawsuits of this nature: "I shoved a camera in a big guy's face and he beat me - and it was *Google* who sold me the camera!"

  104. The brightest minds of a generation... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    And they're still only coming up with new ways to get you to look at ads.

  105. Re:This is the company that reads our email, right by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    If users feel they can't trust Google with the information they give them, they'll stop using their services.

    Yeah.. like 20 users. The rest of the world wont even know or care and google will continue to abuse them for profit - i.e. spamming their ears and eyes with ads in the hope that they get tricked to buy some shit they dont need.

    Don't know why youre so desperate to defend a multibillion dollar advertising (aka spam) company...they're all scum as far as i'm concerned.

  106. Re:This is the company that reads our email, right by 0ld_d0g · · Score: 1

    Well.. what they sell is created/summarized from user data and so it *is* user data. What else could it be?

    You might want to phrase it as not personally identifiable user data. But who defines what personally identifiable is? You or them? Personally I don't care. I use a privacy extension to block all of the ad companies.

  107. Re:This is the company that reads our email, right by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    They don't read your email directly, they just give unlimited access to it to the Federal Bureau of Intrapment.

  108. Re:Just means they will make their money another w by amRadioHed · · Score: 3, Insightful

    It's not a phone, it's a Bluetooth accessory. And the price hasn't been set at $1500. We have no idea what they will be selling this for when it gets released, but over $1000 seems incredibly unlikely.

    --
    We hope your rules and wisdom choke you / Now we are one in everlasting peace
  109. Of course ! by daveime · · Score: 1

    How on earth can Google be expected to place their OWN ads in your apps, if it's too cluttered with YOUR ads ? How naive are tech journalists these days ? Hardware-only revenue ? Yeah right, this is Google we are talking about.

  110. Re:what's the difference? and who does this benefi by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Glass isn't designed to browse web pages.

  111. For now... because policies never change. by Maxo-Texas · · Score: 1

    Unless they are giving a written contract promising to refund the full amount of your purchase while also letting you keep google glass, then this promise is worth the paper it's written on.

    --
    She was like chocolate when she drank... semi-sweet at first and then increasingly bitter.
  112. Re:Just means they will make their money another w by amRadioHed · · Score: 1

    Obviously you are talking out of your ass. SMH.

    --
    We hope your rules and wisdom choke you / Now we are one in everlasting peace
  113. Re:Just means they will make their money another w by amRadioHed · · Score: 1

    How is it that so many people are spouting the same ridiculous nonsense?

    --
    We hope your rules and wisdom choke you / Now we are one in everlasting peace
  114. Re:dear google: by bhagwad · · Score: 1

    Oh sure, protest all you want. You merely don't have the right to "shove them down anyone's throat". Write a book, a poem, draw something, shout, hold placards or whatever you feel like. But you can't stop others from doing it. You can try and persuade them. Not force them to stop.

  115. Re:Just means they will make their money another w by gorzek · · Score: 1

    I could see restaurants paying to have their listing show up first, or at least higher in the list. This could go for any sort of product/business search.

  116. Re:Just means they will make their money another w by nine-times · · Score: 1

    Also, they can gather information about consumer preferences and habits. They can then turn around and sell *that* information to marketers and advertisers.

    I agree with you. That's the smarter move.

  117. Re:This is the company that reads our email, right by swillden · · Score: 1

    Well.. what they sell is created/summarized from user data and so it *is* user data. What else could it be?

    In most cases, Google actually doesn't sell data at all. I understand there are some minor revenues from selling aggregated data. But selling data isn't really Google's business.

    --
    Note to ACs: I usually delete AC replies without reading them. If you want to talk to me, log in.
  118. Re:Just means they will make their money another w by gstoddart · · Score: 0

    I have a hard time believing that they will make all their revenue on hardware alone.

    No, they're just telling other people they can't sell advertising. Google still will sell advertising to you and use your information.

    The biggest thing that leaped out to me was when Google has informed people they can't resell the device.

    Now, that may just apply to the people who got early access to this, but as companies go down the road of "you don't own it, you just licensed it" ... the response will be increasingly "if I don't own it, WTF did I pay you for?"

    This whole licensing shit which says you don't actually own your device is crap. And every week Google slips increasingly into a company whose "do no evil"motto is a joke.

    --
    Lost at C:>. Found at C.
  119. Re:This is the company that reads our email, right by swillden · · Score: 1

    Google has nothing except user data to sell.

    Google effectively sells eyeballs.

    Perhaps this is just a difference in semantics, but it appears to me that you completely misunderstand Google's business model. Google does not collect your data and sell it to advertisers. Google allows advertisers to bid on how much they'll pay Google if Google shows you their ad and you click on it. Google doesn't even give advertisers a significant amount of control over who sees their ads. Advertisers can segment their advertising campaigns geographically (to enable local advertising), but that's generally it. Google uses what they know about you to decide which of the available ads you're likely to be interested in, weighted by the advertisers' bids to maximize Google's revenue. Nothing in that process provides advertisers with your information.

    That's what Google sells: your eyeball and, more importantly, the service of matching your eyeball to the ad most likely to get you to click.

    I believe Google does get a little revenue from selling aggregated data, but that's an insignificant side business.

    --
    Note to ACs: I usually delete AC replies without reading them. If you want to talk to me, log in.
  120. Re:Just means they will make their money another w by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Came to say this. Google simply don't want competition for ads on their new platform, and they know nobody will adopt it if there are prominent ads at the start. The ads will come later, and if by some miracle Glass doesn't flop, Google wants the whole pie for itself.

  121. Waiting for google brain by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Google is waiting for "google brain" to re-introduce it's advertising tactics, the theory being you can take off google glass, but how can you avoid the ads in your brain?

  122. Why would you develop for this? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Why would you make software for a platform that you are not allowed to make money on by either ads or outright selling the software? Free is nice, but most dev's still have to eat, cloth their kids, and pay a mortgage.

  123. Re:what's the difference? and who does this benefi by F9rDT3ZE · · Score: 1

    the story says "the technology is designed to facilitate internet browsing." Is it wrong? do we know for sure?

  124. An ad by any other name by patmandu · · Score: 1

    Public TV/Radio doesn't have ads either. They have sponsorships, which are of course completely different than advertisements because of the spelling. Was there a ban on sponsorships? How about product placements? Endorsements? Recommendations?

  125. Free pass by tooyoung · · Score: 1

    Weird that this is the only comment so far that even mentions this part of the story. Can you imagine if Apple put this restriction in place with the next iPhone?

  126. Ads are dead by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The big money now is in recommendation algorithms that also include suggestions from advertisers.

    What this means is instead of showing Pizza Hut ads, you'll want to create an app that shows pizza locations and can highlight premium destinations.

  127. Re:Just means they will make their money another w by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Mining your audio (speech-to-text) and video (Glass) is certain to lead to more targetted ads. Just because those won't be displayed on Glass, doesn't mean they won't be making ad revenue from it.

  128. Re:This is the company that reads our email, right by HeckRuler · · Score: 1

    Whoa, Swilden, you can't just stop there. You have to explain it all the way otherwise you look like a complete head-over-heels Google fanboy-with-blinders-on.

    No Google doesn't read your mail. The OP is full of shit. And the "Scroogle" propaganda campaign by Microsoft is the worst kind of FUD.

    But they make their money from having data about their users. In aggregate. They sell ad-space. SPECIFICALLY, they sell TARGETED ADS. That aggregated data? It comes in a spreadsheet of "who do you want to sell ads to" next to a number of users. You're technically correct. They don't sell that data. It's given away for free in their BUY AD SPACE NOW page.

    So they don't read your email.
    They don't sell your personal information.
    They don't sell (much) aggregated information about you.
    But they make a FUCKTON of money collecting aggregated information about you and selling ads which target you.

  129. Clean Databse of Users nd activities by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    We all know what is going on here...thankfully it has the street cred Jimmy Saville. :)

  130. Re:Just means they will make their money another w by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Does it really "grind your gears"?

  131. It's not for advertising, it's for collection by EmagGeek · · Score: 1

    It's a surveillance platform, not an advertising platform.

    Raise your hand if you think government will NOT have access to the exabytes of data these things are going to generate.

    Every breath you take
    Every move you make
    Every bond you break
    Every step you take
    I'll be watching you

  132. Diminished experience? by Loopy · · Score: 1

    [...] platform should and must be clean and clear of any ads whatsoever, because the technology is designed to facilitate internet browsing and other related activities, therefore, the featured podium cannot be used to advertise products as it will cause the user experience to diminish.'

    Funny, most of us have been saying that about our computers/browsers for years and Google hasn't listened.

  133. Re:dear google: by BasilBrush · · Score: 1

    So I don't have to shut up and put up with it after all.

  134. Re:Just means they will make their money another w by CanHasDIY · · Score: 1

    I'd wager that hardware revenue alone would make it worth it if glass is "the next big thing."

    Is there a substantial market for cell phone accessories that cost twice as much as the phone itself?

    --
    An enigma, wrapped in a riddle, shrouded in bacon and cheese
  135. Re:Just means they will make their money another w by RoknrolZombie · · Score: 1

    They want to be the only ones to sell your data. I assume the advertising restriction has to do with real-estate, but by phrasing it the way that they have that still leaves them available to sell any of your information that they want to whoever they want. They just want to cut out the competition.

  136. Google Forbids Advertising On Glass ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    .... THIS week.

  137. Think about it by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    A driver with poor vision uses Google glass to augment the scene and make boundaries clear and relay other information. Then suddenly an ad pops up

  138. Re:Just means they will make their money another w by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    I didn't know Youtube had ads until I used a computer without AdBlock. Who knew!

  139. Next step: Ad filters? by Stuntmonkey · · Score: 1

    This story reminded me of Accelerando, where the augmented vision systems in the future become ad filters. Every surface is active and covered with ads vying for your attention, and everyone needs augmented vision to filter them out so you don't go crazy.

  140. Re:Just means they will make their money another w by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    They will have access to search and activity data combined with a feed that shows people's whereabouts and habits. This marketing data will be worth way more than any direct advertising.

    They already collect all of that data and more from your phone, tablet, and pc. Glass is more or less just a face mounted monitor, why should they be interested in collecting duplicate information from it that they are already getting from existing sources?

  141. Re:Just means they will make their money another w by SolitaryMan · · Score: 1

    I think that with the device like this, the line between the ad and just some info becomes more blurry. Say, you walking into a clothing store. Glass knows where you are, knows you are shopping and it may show you ads for the stuff you might like (based on the profile they collected on you) *in this very store*. I think the single add like this will cost a crapload of money, so they don't have to show them all the time.

    --
    May Peace Prevail On Earth
  142. Re:This is the company that reads our email, right by ceoyoyo · · Score: 1

    I don't see what's paranoid about it. Google is a major public corporation with a responsibility to increase shareholder value. Additionally, their business is selling you stuff (on behalf of other corporations). Everyone should be far more concerned about the kind and amount of data they give Google. Whether they sell it to third parties or just use it on behalf of those third parties seems pretty minor.

  143. Re:This is the company that reads our email, right by ankhank · · Score: 1

    I don't misunderstand the business model.
    It's to collect money from advertisers by pushing stuff at viewers.

    "I'm feeling lucky" now tells me I'm feeling hungry and gives me a map of restaurants near where I am.
    Dagnabbit, when I want food, I -know- how to search for food I want.
    I'm a living organism. We do this instinctively.

    Google's business could have been search: making sellers more competent at describing what they have to sell, where, when, and how, and on what terms, so they can be found by people who want something -- so someone can find something simply, straightforwardly, least effort for best result.

    Google could have been a reference librarian for the marketplace, helping people by narrowing a search interactively, even querying the potential seller to improve their information if people keep asking for something Google figures out is probably what the seller wants to sell, as well as querying the potential buyer.

    Go to a good library. Talk to a good reference librarian. Say you want something very specific that you don't know how to find.

    Google could be that.

    Instead the web becomes more and more layers of repeated stuff, and readers go through clicking page after page after page.
    And the more pages are presented, the more the advertiser's stuff shows up, the more chances there are for clicks. $$PROFIT$$ eh?
    Gubbish.

    Google's business could have been search. I'd gladly buy from a seller that made the effort -- one that paid Google to help make their information clearer, more distinctive, and more easily discoverable (what searches do people do trying to find this sort of thing?). Save me time, save me trouble, save me from distraction, make search better.

    Instead the model is to stuff the web with more stuff I have to work harder to ignore all the time, eating up the time I have to live.

    Why, yes, I am old enough to remember when signs didn't glare, pages didn't shout, and I could go to Usenet and -ask- for something
    and if I asked cleverly enough, showing I"d done my homework, people would answer - and then everyone else could find the answer later.
    Like, as Borges says somewhere, going into a dark huge library and shouting my question -- and hearing answers coming back.

    Google could have been that library.

    Someone will, eventually.

  144. Answer: mindshare by Overzeetop · · Score: 1

    First to market (well usually second to market, actually) will have a huge advantage over the next few. If you're willing to make Google Glass awesome through a great app, you will get mindshare for the future iterations...which will probably have a regular, for-profit marketplace.

    --
    Is it just my observation, or are there way too many stupid people in the world?
  145. Tinfoil hat? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    You realize that Google's main business *IS* advertising. How do you think YouTube, Gmail, and Google proper make money? Of course Google Glasses will have ads. The majority of Google's services either present ads or are a way to maintain engagement with Google so you can see the ads they have on other services.

  146. Re:Just means they will make their money another w by rsborg · · Score: 1

    Most folks don't have problems with advertising that helps them find what they're looking for.

    Especially if those ads don't look like ads. Product placement, anyone? Prioritized search responses? How are you going to know, with the SEO blackhats vs. the Google algorithm?

    --
    Make sure everyone's vote counts: Verified Voting
  147. Re:Just means they will make their money another w by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I'm pretty sure that if some hardware was mandatorily forced to use Bing, either a) nobody would buy it, or b) there would be hack or app immediately created to revert it to Google.

    NOBODY likes using Bing. And I mean NOBODY. I have not heard a single person since Bing's inception say anything but bad about it (the layout, the searches, etc). The ONLY people that use it either a) are paid to, or b) are in an office environment where IE is their only option. And even THEN, in our office IE is our only option, but they don't appear to have blocked the ability to switch the default toolbar search to Google. The second I figured out that was changeable, every person in the office wanted me to show them how to change theirs as well.

    So no, forcing all searches to route through Bing would only eviscerate their user base and hardware sales.

  148. Re:Just means they will make their money another w by rsborg · · Score: 1

    A Glass user walks to a restaurant for lunch and casually ends up scanning all the patrons. Google now can sell ads to competing restaurants and deals for that restaurant to all those people.

    If this actually happens, how long until a restaurant (esp. a chain resto) finds out and then bans Glass from premises? How long until others follow suit? I seriously doubt Google wants even the above strategy.

    --
    Make sure everyone's vote counts: Verified Voting
  149. Re:This is the company that reads our email, right by bhagwad · · Score: 1

    It's not a minor point because I trust Google not to give my data to anyone and not to use in a bad way. If that trust is broken people stop using their stuff. So they have a powerful business incentive to be good in this regard.

  150. Re:Just means they will make their money another w by Threni · · Score: 1

    1) You're right.

    2) You're wrong. Developers can't sell apps.

    It's a draw!

  151. Re:Just means they will make their money another w by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    My tinfoil-hat conspiracy theory says they want to get people used to Glass first, and then start slowly implementing ads until they feel commonplace and accepted.

    Just like they did on Android? Oh, wait, Google's Android apps don't have ads. Just like most of their products don't, in fact, have ads.

  152. Re:Just means they will make their money another w by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Google does this by selling data, boo fucking hoo.

    Google doesn't sell data. They hoard it and never let anybody else see it. Their business model is being the middle man. If they sell their data, their business collapses. That's one of the major reasons you can actually trust Google with your data - they've got $50B reasons to never let anyone else get that data.

  153. Re:Just means they will make their money another w by tgd · · Score: 1

    I have a hard time believing that they will make all their revenue on hardware alone. They will have access to search and activity data combined with a feed that shows people's whereabouts and habits. This marketing data will be worth way more than any direct advertising.

    They don't need to show you ads to generate revenue. Your Google account, linked to them, is the real value. The ads they show you *off* the Glass hardware when you're logged in on your computer become a lot more valuable when Google knows that much more information about the things you do off the computer.

  154. Re:Just means they will make their money another w by tgd · · Score: 1

    It's not a phone, it's a Bluetooth accessory. And the price hasn't been set at $1500. We have no idea what they will be selling this for when it gets released, but over $1000 seems incredibly unlikely.

    I wouldn't assume that. The trendy new thing has been above that price point lots of times in the past.

    The original "fashion" StarTac was over $1000, adjusted for inflation, 20 years ago, as one example that comes to mind.

  155. Clarification by Zynder · · Score: 1

    I have the same experience as you regarding no separate ads, whether at the beginning, middle, or end, due to Adblock+. When he stated float-free youtube, I do believe he means all those damned popup thought bubble ads overlayed on the video itself. Those have to be turned off by clicking the Hide Annotations button on the player toolbar. I have not found a way to make those be turned off by default, and so that is the first thing I click once the video begins playing. But yeah if I didn't have Adblock+ to kill the traditional commercials, I'd have abandoned Youtube long ago. ABP also works quite nicely on Hulu, though with them you get a 30second blank spot bitching at you to stop blocking it! I feel a little bit giddy looking at that screen. Good time to go get some more Mt Dew and Doritos!

  156. Re:Just means they will make their money another w by DragonWriter · · Score: 1

    2) You're wrong. Developers can't sell apps.

    No, I'm not wrong. Developers cannot sell Glass Apps, true. But I didn't say they could. What I did say is that they can sell online web applications for which the corresponding Glass App is free. The Glass App still can drive revenue, by making the paid app it supports more valuable to users.

  157. Glassholes by Flere+Imsaho · · Score: 2

    The best collective noun for Glass users I've heard so far - Glassholes :-)

    --
    It gripped her hand gently. 'Regret is for humans,' it said.
  158. Re:Just means they will make their money another w by EdZ · · Score: 1

    With the exception of the omitted cellular modem and amplifiers, and the different display, the components running Google Glass are the same as you'll find in any number of smartphones. $1500 is what they're selling for now (or rather, sold for while available), as a development kit. If they intend to go full-scale, then volume production will further reduce part and manufacturing costs.

  159. Re:This is the company that reads our email, right by Rob_Bryerton · · Score: 1
    He's not a fanboy, he works for Google. If you look a few posts up, he tucks this away in the 2nd or 3rd paragraph of his reponse to another poster...

    From his post http://hardware.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=3662715&cid=43483391

    Also, disclaimer: I work for Google but don't have any inside information about this. My comments are based on the published privacy policy.

  160. What do you mean you can't sell Glass? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Didn't the Supreme Court just rule on a case like that?

  161. Re:dear google: by tlambert · · Score: 1

    So I don't have to shut up and put up with it after all.

    I think we will happily allow you to protest our wearing of Google Glass devices, so long as you do it in the Free Speech Zone we've set up across town in that fenced in area under the overpass. You will also find there plenty of Tea Party folks and Occupy Wall street folks there to keep you company whom we identify as "right wing" or "left wing" to keep them from getting together and ending up effective political machines, when we all know that both of them have the same "we are pissed at the people currently in power" grievance.

    But feel free to go all "Dennis Leary in Demolition Man" about people who can afford toys you can't afford or simply don't want.

  162. Now hold up by Zynder · · Score: 1

    Now hold up. As other posters have pointed out, the conspiracy that the OP is trying assert is most likely a condition of these devices being developer models and that makes sense. What he is correct about, is that many companies and even our politicians quite often do try the old "This is us giving you something, not the other way around." No one can deny that. You said it yourself (in not so many words) that nothing is ever truly free. The reason people expect free to mean no obligation in return is because that's it technical definition. Alot of us know better though. I also agree that the Glass device itself is worthy of monetary payment if it's good hardware. So no beef there. What I do take offense to is that you took this thread and made it all political so I'm gonna tear it apart and challenge your ideals.

    Where is this actual group of people who always scream something-for-nothing? In any population there will always be some that refuse to do anything at all, sure. That group though has always been statistically small and it will never be eradicated. You just have to deal with those. What I hear most conservatives claim about the people who are lazy good for nothings sucking off the government teet are in actuality people who are on disability, social security, the mentally ill, foster/orphan children and the like. These folks met the criteria to claim these benefits so they aren't freeloaders, we as a society (and in general decent fucking human beings) have decided to take care of them as opposed to let them die in the streets. People on Social Security and Unemployment are especially immune to the criticisms. Those are insurances. They paid into them and are most definitely entitled to get their money back! That isn't something for nothing. Veterans benefits are also another untouchable. They went to war for the ideals this country purports to uphold so you are goddamned right they deserve everything they earned. We broke em, we should fix em.

    What I hear the people scream is not something for nothing, they say "Where's my fair share?" You also defend Google saying they are a corporation who made a product so deserve to be paid for it cause it wasn't free to produce. I agree, however, many corporations (none of my following statements necessarily apply to just Google) think THEY ARE ENTITLED to your business. They lock you into contracts (software companies), setup protected monopolies (power/cable/utilties), legislate failed business models (Banks/RIAA/MPAA), and most all business categories beat competition down with patent upon patent that may not even be valid! It seems like every quarter we get another news story talking about how Exxon has made a new record all time high profit of eleventy billion dollars. Libertarians and Conservatives alike will say that this was came by honest, that they worked hard, tightened up those boot straps, and are now reaping their success. If it is honest, then you'll never hear me bitch about it. But just like you and I know what free really means, at least I see that profit was anything but honest. They get un-needed subsidies, tax breaks, tax shelters, favorable legislation, and a whole myriad of other benefits that you nor I could even possibly have a hope of receiving. On the flip side, Liberals also think that we can just do bread and circuses and everything will be ok. That's not right either.

    How much money is enough? I expect you or another poster to reply: As much as the market can bear. Do you really know what that means? That means you are stressing the system so hard that one more unit of whatever measurement you are using will break it (to simplify it for laymen). That is a flaw in capitalism that needs patched. We had an article the other day about lithium batteries. The most highly moderated posts all said something to the effect of if you charge them to 100% all the time or discharge them completely you will break them. The ideal charge mode was never below 10% and not more than 90%. Also look at s

  163. So much for the Android experiment... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    "you may not resell, loan, transfer, or give your device to any other person. If you resell, loan, transfer, or give your device to any other person without Google's authorization, Google reserves the right to deactivate the device, and neither you nor the unauthorized person using the device will be entitled to any refund, product support, or product warranty."

    Guess Google learned from their overly-open experiment known as Android and have come to their senses and made their own walled garden device.

  164. Re:Just means they will make their money another w by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    (Score:-1, Troll)at time of AC post below

    google has been about the green valley with large high hills

    ... the incinerator at one end, the toxic waste dump at the other, and a highway lined with billboards between the two. But it's not as expensive to live there as somewhere nice.

    Troll my ass...seems you're spot on to me.

  165. Re:Just means they will make their money another w by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    They are giving you something, otherwise not only would nobody pay for it, they wouldn't use it even if it were free. I get so sick of all the something-for-nothing entitlement attitude that pervades society these days. Heaven forbid that companies actually make money to pay their costs, employees, and have some kind of, you know, profit for their shareholders. Google does this by selling data, boo fucking hoo. Meanwhile the people giving them data get in return free (huge) email, free phone service, free online storage, free office-oriented web apps, etc. etc.

    Clearly, you have sold your soul to the devil already with that first paragraph.

    And all you wankers who defend the ignorant, knock it off. You're not helping them.

    Wow, and a bully/tyrant too? Nice! Lucifer must be proud.

  166. Re:Just means they will make their money another w by kllrnohj · · Score: 0

    an off-the-shelf display module.

    Wrong.

    Either that or you are from the future with some really awesome shelves that we don't have here in the present.

    Or, more likely, you pulled bullshit out of your ass and have not once looked up what sort of eye displays are out there (and how much they cost). Hint, they are really, really fucking expensive (and if you look at the "off-the-shelf" ones you'll see they are much worse and much larger than what Google has)

  167. Re:Can't resell it... what?! I hope CM is okay... by multimediavt · · Score: 1

    The no resale limitation appears to be on the developer version that is out now. If they did that with the commercial one, they would have a giant shitstorm on their hands, both PR and legal.

    Umm, if this was some simple one-off run of devices why did they sell them at all? Why not "loan" them to people they feel like loaning them to and hit them with a no resale clause? Hell, they could have auctioned the suckers off among the 1% and made a ton and hit them with the no resale terms! If this isn't them testing the waters for the same (or at least somewhat more restrictive than Android-proper) terms for the commercial release I would be surprised.

    P.S. This thread on /. you don't think would qualify as the beginnings of a PR shitstorm? Don't think Google eyes aren't in here right now...recording on their Glass! [that recording thing was only partially serious]

  168. Re:Just means they will make their money another w by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    just like they do with all their services.

  169. Re:dear google: by BasilBrush · · Score: 1

    Ah, you fit the profile of a google glass user perfectly... No social conscience.

  170. Re:dear google: by i+kan+reed · · Score: 1

    Fine, let me rephrase, most people will want after google advertises it at them through all their various media they have direct control over.

  171. Re:Just means they will make their money another w by wisnoskij · · Score: 1

    You do not need a tin-foil hat for this.

    The entire point of a this type of desire if ads. When you pass a shop, or look at an item for sale is a store. You will get sale locations and prices, etc all.
    All this means is that ads will be a fundamental part of the device, and should not be adding in piecemeal by developers.

    I guaranty you day one launch will filled with ads, portrayed as pertinent information.

    --
    Troll is not a replacement for I disagree.
  172. Re:This is the company that reads our email, right by ceoyoyo · · Score: 1

    That's pretty naive. You may have worked out some kind of trust with Google (I certainly haven't), but the majority of Google's product either don't care or don't know. The majority of Google users don't think about how much information Google has on them, how it's used, or how it could be used. Google doesn't have any business incentive at all to be "good," only to not be so obvious about what they're doing that the mainstream takes notice. Google has not been uniformly good. They've already been caught willfully disregarding users' explicit privacy requests (the Safari circumvention).

    You say you trust Google. So who's in charge of Google? Your friends Schmidt, Page and Brin hold negligible portions of Google. Check out the major holders: http://finance.yahoo.com/q/mh?s=GOOG+Major+Holders. You're actually trusting Fidelity Investments and Vanguard.

  173. Re:This is the company that reads our email, right by bhagwad · · Score: 1

    Dude...have some faith :)

    I give the benefit of the doubt first. Only after I have concrete proof that Google is selling my data will I lose that trust. And like I said, there's no need for Google to earn a few extra pennies by selling my data to third parties. They're doing just fine as of now.

  174. Genius by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    They are absolutely not just going for hardware money. Think about it...someone who purchases a Google hardware product will probably also use Google as their search engine/email client, etc. More people using Google's web products more often means more money for Google (regardless of the fact that they are free to the average user) . The same school of thought applies for Google fiber. Google is securing their companies future by providing low cost products to users to facilitate an even deeper integration of the internet into ever aspect of peoples lives.

  175. Re:This is the company that reads our email, right by ceoyoyo · · Score: 1

    You seem preoccupied with selling your data. Google is in a position to do more harm with it than just about anyone they might sell it to.

    I do not have faith in the good intentions of corporations. I use Google services where it makes sense, in the knowledge that I'm giving them something for what they're giving me. I don't just give them whatever they ask for (or take) because, hey, they said they wouldn't do any evil!

  176. Re:This is the company that reads our email, right by bhagwad · · Score: 1

    At least you agree that Google would be dumb to sell the data to anyone else.

    So...what harm do you fear from Google having that data?

  177. Re:Just means they will make their money another w by EdZ · · Score: 1

    It's a micro-display module, small field-of-view, and look-through. It's not exactly ground-breaking technology, and essentially equivalent modules have been on sale for the past couple of decades for anyone willing to actually buy one (and, until the last decade, can afford research/military pricing). Those tiny DLP chips and miniature LCDs used in projectors? They aren't found just in projectors.

  178. No advertising? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    So, developers can't advertise on Google Glass... Google wants to keep that exclusive right for themselves? Ditto for storing and selling your personal information? How does it being a platform for web browsing help the case that there should be no advertisements on it? Ever been on the web? There's a few ads....

  179. Bait and switch by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    They think we are stupid. Make the product as good as possible. If its a success and takes hold SWITCH.

  180. Re:dear google: by tlambert · · Score: 1

    Ah, you fit the profile of a google glass user perfectly... No social conscience.

    I have a social conscience. I just don't ascribe stupid spying motives to Google Glass because I'm not a paranoid schizophrenic who is too mundane to figure out a profit model for the things that doesn't involve spying. Just because you can't see how to make money out of the things without spying doesn't mean that Google can't either.

  181. Re:This is the company that reads our email, right by ankhank · · Score: 1

    http://www.mercurynews.com/politics-government/ci_23067322/silicon-valley-companies-quietly-try-kill-internet-privacy

    "... A recent letter signed by 15 companies and trade groups -- including TechAmerica, which represents Google, Facebook, Microsoft and other technology companies -- demanded that the measure's author, Assemblywoman Bonnie Lowenthal, D-Long Beach, drop her bill. They complain it would open up businesses to an avalanche of requests from individuals as well as costly lawsuits.

    One early consequence of the heavy lobbying: A hearing on the bill, AB1291, scheduled for last week, has been pushed to next month.

    The American Civil Liberties Union, a co-sponsor of the Right to Know Act, accuses the business groups of overreacting to hide their true intentions: to keep out of the public's eye the lucrative practice of amassing personal information on people who use online services, computer apps, social networking sites and other portals that track people's locations, buying habits, favorite foods and movies, and even their sexual orientation.... ... ... The push for the new law comes as tech, banking and marketing firms find more ways to mine vast amounts of personal information on consumers to target their specific needs. Some websites have installed as many as 100 tracking tools that kick in when consumers visit them, according to the bill's analysis.

    Many Facebook apps tap into their users' and their friends' profiles, including sections on religious, political and sexual preferences; race; income; and health concerns. Third-party advertising and marketing companies buy, sell and trade personal information that they get from mobile phones, financial institutions and social media sites.

    Some mobile applications share location information and phone numbers of users -- a concern to advocates of domestic violence victims.
    Consumers who live in 27 countries that belong to the European Union already have the right to know what data companies have on them -- laws that are being complied by Facebook, Google and others that are opposing the California legislation.

    Google did not reply to requests for an interview; a Facebook spokesman declined to talk about the bill. The California Chamber of Commerce referred all calls to TechAmerica, the trade group that represents major Internet companies...."

  182. Re:This is the company that reads our email, right by ankhank · · Score: 1

    "... the reason for everything must publicly appear. Every man is a proprietor in government, and considers it a necessary part of his business to understand. It concerns his interest, because it affects his property. He examines the cost, and compares it with the advantages; and above all, he does not adopt the slavish custom of following what in other governments are called LEADERS.

    It can only be by blinding the understanding of man, and making him believe that government is some wonderful mysterious thing, that excessive revenues are obtained...."

    http://www.ushistory.org/paine/rights/c2-03.htm

  183. Re:Just means they will make their money another w by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I think this is just a micro-extension of their mapping cars. This is how they will map the insides of buildings and get some "Goggles" recognition of the users within for matching with their online profiles. Imagine that you are flagged on an some online network as working or shopping at a certain location, just because someone else's Glass saw you there. Creepy potential. I'm sure that our law enforcement agencies are watering at the mouth at the potential suspect apprehension ability that this will provide them. Soon, everyone will be wearing "decorative" masks to maintain any level of privacy in their daily lives.