Since Google launched its reality-augmenting Project Glass in June, it’s been pretty much impossible find a picture of Google co-founder Sergei Brin in which he’s not wearing the futuristic eye-piece. Last night’s Vanity Fair Oscar party was no exception. Which means 150 of Hollywood’s most famous and beautiful people, from Natalie Portman to JJ Abrams, got to look Brin in the eye as a tiny display glowed just above his right pupil, as if that were something totally normal that they should just get used to.
We don’t even know what to call this thing yet—is it a Glass, a pair of Glasses, or a pair of Glass?—and yet he’s already been spotted wearing it, or them, on the New York City subway and at the signing of California’s legislation authorizing (Google’s) driverless cars.
Using your own products is standard practice in technology companies that want to remain competitive—it’s called eating your own dog food or, more optimistically,drinking your own champagne. But Brin’s experiment in public, always-on Google Glass(es) takes this to a whole new level. Intentionally or not, Brin is constantly projecting the image of a rich, famous, vigorous alpha-geek whom other might want to imitate—all the way down to never taking off the Google Glass.
This trends is only going to accelerate. Ostensible competitor Mark Zuckerberg has declared that he “can’t wait” to get his hands on Glass. For Google’s sake, let’s hope this goes better than the last fashion trend Brin tried to start—wearing “five-finger” toe shoes to professional events.
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