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Google Innovation Chief: ‘We craved too much public attention for Google Glass’

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By Seb Joseph, News editor

March 17, 2015 | 4 min read

The technology milestone that was the creation of Google Glass will be forever marred by the fact that its innovation team encouraged too much attention for the wearable technology, revealed Google’s innovation boss and Nasa astronaut Astro Teller.

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Google is no stranger to failure. In fact it encourages staff to embrace missteps in the belief that the learnings that come with them are critical to making great progress. It was this guiding principle that meant Google’s decision to axe production of the Google Glass in January was not seen as a failure internally, added Teller.

Speaking at SWSW, he added that it was “a great decision to do the Glass Explorer programme”, a project he oversaw as director of Google's innovation unit Google X.

“The thing that we did not do well was that we allowed, and sometimes even encouraged too much attention to the program,” he continued. “We did things which encouraged people to think of this as a finished product.”

His comments allude to the PR that trumpeted the arrival of the smart glasses in 2013, which saw the device worn by runway models during New York Fashion Week and handed to an army of social media influencers. It may have been too much, too soon for a product that company had always said was still in beta when it went on sale.

Google still has hopes for the smart glassware as shown by its decision to pull the Glass team from Google X to form a separate division under the stewardship Tony Fadell, chief executive of Nest Labs, the connected homes business Google acquired in 2014.

“[Glass] was one of those that we had to get out into the world as soon as possible,” said Teller. “We learned a lot of things about the technology, like the battery. It was also valuable for social testing and I’m really grateful for all the fearless pioneers who went on that adventure with us.”

He shared the story behind Google Glass to illustrate the importance of failure in innovation. “Failures are cheap if you do them first, expensive if they come last, a mantra he champions across all the projects currently underway at Google X including Project Loon – a plan to use balloons to deliver the internet to rural and remote areas.

Teller told how the initiative hit a snag when the team found the balloons were leaking when they hit a certain altitude. The members tried to root out the sort of the problem by studying unusual aspects like the fluffiness of the developers’ socks.

“The longer you work on something the less you want to know what the world thinks,” professed Teller. “The longer you put off that learning you will unconsciously put off that news because it’s disheartening to hear that what you have been working on is not working,” he added.

Technology lovers can expect an update on Google’s self-delivery vehicle Project Wind soon, teased Teller. While the team admittedly deemed the project a failure after 18 months, Google wanted the project to come to a natural end instead of it being cut prematurely.

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