TECH PRODUCT FAILURES
What Was Behind the Failure of Google Glass, Google Wave and Google Plus?
3 tech flop stories that teach great lessons
Ever wondered why some cool ideas just don’t take off?
Tech giant Google is known for creating some amazing products that changed the way we live and work on the internet. But not every idea they come up with turns out to be a hit.
Below we’re looking at three Google products that weren’t all bad, but didn’t quite make it and why.
1. Google Glass
It’s 2013, a world where people are starting to wear computers on their faces.
Enter Google Glass, a pair of smart glasses that promised to be the next big thing in tech.
Google Glass let you take pictures, get directions, and read messages without using your hands. You could control it with voice commands like “OK Glass, take a picture.”
Google Glass was equipped with a head-up display, bone conduction transducers for sound, and a touchpad for control. It had a camera for taking photos and recording videos, and it could connect to the internet via Wi-Fi.
Sounds like a wonderful thing, right?
Not so much.
Why Google Glass Failed
Despite the excitement, Google Glass faced several issues.
- The built-in camera led the glasses to bans in public places. It was seen as an intrusive technology that let people (strangers) record you without your consent. The term “Glasshole” was coined for people who wore them in public.
- Priced at $1,500, the glasses were prohibitively expensive for most people.
- Although the device soon found use cases in healthcare and journalism fields, it had limited practical uses for the average consumer.
More criticism poured in for the product’s awkward design and short battery life, and by 2015, Google stopped selling the prototype version.
While it found a niche market in industries like logistics and manufacturing, leading to the release of Google Glass Enterprise Edition in 2017, as of March 15, 2023, Google no longer sells it.
2. Google Wave
Launched in 2009, Google Wave was an ambitious project that combined email, instant messaging, wikis, and social networking into a single communication platform.
Wave allowed users to create “waves,” which were rich multimedia messages that could be edited by multiple users simultaneously.
You could add videos, photos, extensions like maps and polls to your waves.
Why Google Wave Failed
While it sounded great, Google Wave was problematic.
- Google Wave was highly complex and difficult for new users to understand, which significantly hindered its adoption.
- Users found the interface overwhelming and the concept confusing.
- With no clear use case defined, users didn’t know when to use Wave instead of email or chat. And because it was so complicated, not many people used it.
By 2010, Google announced they would stop developing Google Wave as a standalone product.
It was officially shut down in 2012.
3. Google Plus
Google Plus (Google+) was launched in 2011 as Google’s fourth attempt to create a social network of its own.
Plus’ predecessors — Google Wave, Google Buzz and Orkut, had all failed.
Google+ had features like “Circles” for organizing your contacts, “Hangouts” for video chats, and “Sparks” for finding new content.
“Streams” was the main feed where users could see updates, posts, and shares from their Circles. It was similar to the news feed on Facebook or the timeline on Twitter.
Google+ was also integrated with other Google services like Gmail and YouTube.
Why Google+ Failed
- It was late to the party. The features, while innovative, didn’t offer enough of a compelling reason for people to switch from Facebook and Twitter. It turned out that people were quite content with their existing social networks and didn’t see a need to migrate to a new platform.
- Google initially forced integration with other services like YouTube, which annoyed users and led to backlash.
- In 2018, it was revealed that a software glitch exposed the private information of up to 500,000 users, leading to concerns about privacy.
In December 2018, Google announced they would shut down Google Plus for consumers.
The service was officially closed in April 2019.
The Lessons Learned
From these stories, we learn a few key lessons:
- Timing matters. Glass and Wave were ahead of their time. Sometimes, the world isn’t ready for a new technology, or just doesn’t need it.
- Simplicity is key. Tech products, however innovative, need to be easy to use if they are intended for the general consumer. Google Wave’s complexity scared off users.
- User needs. Even great technology won’t succeed if it doesn’t meet users’ needs or fit into their lives. Google Plus didn’t offer enough to make people switch from its competitors.
Failures are part of the process — they teach us what doesn’t work.
So, here’s to Google Glass, Google Wave, and Google Plus — three ambitious projects that didn’t make it, but taught us great lessons.
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