That's because the company has been adamant about not allowing
outside developers to serve ads in Glassware. The terms of service
for any outside developers put it flatly: "No Ads." They also insist
that all Glassware is free to download. So while Google is getting
directly in front of consumers' eyes, just millimeters away, the
source of company revenue that's making Glass development possible
in the first place -- advertising -- can't get close.
That doesn't mean that a presence is worthless, however, even in
advertising terms. There's a simple brand halo, participating
companies calculate, to being among the first to experiment with
Google's innovative new effort. But contextualized, location-based
data collected through Glass could also prove incredibly helpful in
targeting consumers on other platforms.
Twitter's Glassware will allow users to send tweet photos
directly from Glass. Wearers will also be to view direct messages
and mentions and reply to, retweet and "favorite" mentions of their
handle.
Facebook's Glassware will let users share Glass photos directly
to the social network.
CNN has also announced a Glass app that will feature video clips
and headlines. The app will likely challenge the Times's app for
breaking news supremacy on Glass, because The Times's Glassware
currently does not feature video.
The Times's app does let readers have story summaries "read" to
them via Glass's bone conduction functionality, which delivers
audio by sending vibrations through a wearer's skull.
Google also said this week that it's developing a more
accessible programming interface called the Glass Development Kit.
To date, software developers have only been able to build on Glass
using the Mirror API, which several digital agency executives have
called "limiting."
