Google reveals Glass apps: New York Times, Evernote, Gmail, and Path
Developer advocate Timothy Jordan highlights the ways your favorite services might integrate with Google Glass — We're watching Google's Project Glass developer panel live at SXSW Interactive, and the company's showing off …
Context & Ripple Effects
Google had already used a first-person Glass demonstration and expanded Explorer preorders to make the head-mounted device tangible before it reached developers. A Duke-built recognition app also showed that early experimentation was extending beyond Google's own demos.
The New York Times, Evernote, Gmail, and Path integrations give Glass an initial service layer while the Explorer Edition is still awaiting developer shipment. That makes the SXSW presentation an early test of whether a head-mounted interface can become a destination for existing digital services, not only a Google hardware showcase.
First-order effects
- Google gives prospective Glass Explorers recognizable uses for the device through integrations with Gmail, The New York Times, Evernote, and Path.
- The four services gain an early presence on Glass, tying their content, messaging, notes, and social updates to Google's head-mounted interface.
Second-order effects
- Google's early service roster raises the incentive for other publishers, productivity tools, and social services to evaluate Glass-specific experiences before the platform reaches developers.
- The Duke prototype and the announced integrations separate Glass's value proposition from hardware alone: developers and service operators must design around what information is useful in a glanceable, wearable format.
Third-order effects
- If third-party services continue to treat Glass as a distinct channel, Google can shift the product from a standalone device experiment toward a platform whose usefulness depends on partner integrations.
- That model concentrates platform influence with Google, which controls the wearable interface through which publishers, communications services, and productivity tools reach the user.
The trend: Wearable computing is beginning to compete as an application platform, with familiar services used to establish utility before broad developer access.