IN HAMBURG WITH GOOGLE: GOOGLEHAUS

Last Wednesday Google invited me to Hamburg into the Googlehaus. Google gave a tour around the house, showing their latest products. The tour was arranged according to rooms you find in a normal household, kitchen, masterbedroom, teens room etc., directly showing how the products can be used in all the different aspects of life.

The tour started in the kitchen with a live cooking session with the boys from Punkfood introducing us to Google Search’s latest feature: voice search. You may have noticed the new microphone button at Google. Google now takes voice questions and gives spoken answers. In the kitchen we used Google’s new tool for finding recipes, setting an alarm, finding out how much calories a potato has, how hot the oil should be while frying meat or simply where to find the nearest supermarket. The tour continued to the living room, which got a little more interesting with the introduction of Chrome Cast and Google Play. Google Play is a media library that allows you to lend or buy movies (apps and music also all also available in Google Play) which you can then watch on your TV screen with the help of Chrome Cast. With Chrome Cast you can broadcast Youtube videos or lent movies onto your TV while still being able to use your tablet, laptop or smartphone. So while you’re broadcasting you can text, call, surf the web without stopping the broadcast, as it runs in the background of your casting device. The fitness room worked according to the same principle focusing more on sports as an entertainment.

Holiday room. How to get to the airport, is my flight on time, what’s the weather like at my destination, where’s my hotel? All quick questions for Google’s voice search. Another fact: Getting over the language barrier with Google Translate. Well honestly I think Google Translate is lousy as it translate word for word, but it’s being updated and worked on. You can now conversate with a person in a different language thanks to voice translation. If you don’t get the menu at a restaurant use Google Translate or if you’re lazy just take a picture of the text, highlight the writing and Google will do the rest for you. Also interesting was Google’s web album which constantly and immediately updates when you take pictures and shares them. My favorite function is the automated GIF maker. But there’s more such as Holiday highlight movie maker.

My favourite room was of course was the master bedroom that’s clearly dominated by the lady of the mansion, Miss Googlehaus, as I could identify myself best with it. Besides her kingsized bed, walk-in closet that had me drooling over the most beautiful red jumper perfect for my very own winter wardrobe and the attached romantic-lit bathroom all so dreamy and devine of course…
Lady of the Manor finding out what’s in trend today in the world of fashion or how trends have changed over years. There’s a trend analysis built into Google Search that gives lots of information on whatever you’re researching. What’s the trend color for this fall? She was live video chatting about which dress to wear. That could have easily been me on a Google+ hangout with my girlfriends.

The most helpful tool during the entire presentation for me personally was the Google document which allows many people to be working on it at the same time. Perfect for group work for university assignments and homework. Only downside to this tool? There’s no way you can pull off the “I forgot my stick./ These (ancient) school computers can not open my document or stick” or “Well group member X has the homework and he’s sick today” excuses because everyone has a copy and it’s accessible from everywhere, also your phone.
Also introduced in the Teen room was Google’s latest project called the Art project which is a digital Gallery that currently holds about 200 000 art works from sculptures to paintings. It’s in close collaborations with museums such as MoMA NY.

The highlight of course was the encounter with Google Glass. Btw how are these not called googles? There’s no glass to it anyway, it’s merely a frame with a projector. Googles <-> goggles. Get it?
I swear to God my first thought when I tried them on and the little screen only visible to myself popped up infront of my eyes and the inner of voice of Google Glass welcomed me to the device was “O-M-G this is what Cookie must have felt like. On my Cookie shit right now. Straight pimpin’! I’m in the future, Adios Biatchos!” OK GLASS! – which is what I then said loud to get the device synched to my voice and up on running.
Anyone remember Cookie from Ned’s Declassified School Guide? He used to run around with his super duper glasses that infact work exactly like Google Glass. Turns out I’m not the only one who made this association! If you watched that show in your child hood, you know exactly what to expect of Google Glass.
If you didn’t, expect it to be something like a smartphone only that that screen is projected right infront of your eyes and the glasses is controlled either by your voice or the swipping of your finger across the frame (there’s a motion pad built in for controlling). You can call, get directions to wherever you want to go or even take pictures and short videos that you can then send per email or share with your friends! It’s super freaky but enticing. It’s an innovation – ok well as innovative as it can be, given that Cookie invented it not even 10 years ago.. But it’s new on the market, so kudos to Google for making it real.

Google Glass is already available in the USA and comes in different colors, but release dates for the rest of the world are still in the stars. Do you think the world is ready for this? I mean not even 10 years ago nobody even believed we could control telephones with our fingers and here we are with all our smartphone touch screens.
The day at Googlehaus really opened my eyes to realize how far we’ve come in terms of technology and what’s crazier is the little amount of time we used to get here. Who knows where we’ll be in 5-10 years from now? What we’ll have?

Next thing we’ll be printing with our ass! Cookie used to have a printer in his trouser and print any information he got with his super duper glasses straight through his ass. (He carried a printer between his trousers and panties.)

Future is now people, future is now..

Love Lois xxx

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