Palin: No Google Glass Tryout for Former Alaska Governor

A Verge reporter sporting the Google Glass device offered Sarah Palin a chance to try the new Google computerized glasses, which she promptly turned down.

Nilay Patel, from the online technology newspaper The Verge, was hanging out at a bar the night before the Indianapolis 500, enjoying reactions to the somewhat dorky-looking pair of Google Glass he was wearing, when Palin walked in with her husband, Todd Palin.

While lots of people wanted to try on the new glasses and asked questions about how they worked, the Palins were uninterested, Patel reported as part of his experience with the glasses.

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Todd Palin reportedly asked Patel, “What’s in it for us?” when Patel offered Sarah Palin the glasses. Even when he explained that he was a reporter and wasn’t looking for an endorsement, Todd Palin asked him to leave.

That’s certainly not the reaction to wearing Google Glass that others are having, including Michele Bachmann, former Republican presidential hopeful who announced this week she won’t be running for a fifth Congressional term. She checked out the glasses in mid-May at a Republican house meeting.

Other celebs are jumping on board to don Google Glasses, despite many in the media reporting that the wearer’s eyes look a little crazy. Sarah Jessica Parker, singer Brandy and hip-hop/R&B artist Soula Boy were a few who’ve worn the glasses. Many were part of the lucky 8,000 winners of a Glass explorers kit from Google.

The glasses won’t go on sale until next year, but the public is curious about the possibilities of a totally new experience. Google developers told FastCompany that the glasses can do most of what people do on their smartphones now. They’re like wearing around a voice-activated computer.

Google Glass is getting some negative reactions before they’re even on the market. An article on BostInno wondered if good marketing can make people actually want to wear the glasses in public. In that article, writer Walter Frick said Technology Review is asking if a product ever caused this kind of backlash before hitting the market.

Google may have to really work to fight the marketing buzz already generated.

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