Google has been "woohoo-ing" its way through the week as it notifies 8,000 people they'll be getting the first shot at buying Google Glass. Yet just a day into the program, Google has already been kicking some people out.
Last month, Google announced it was seeking more early adopters to join its Glass Explorer program and asked people interested in trying the company's forthcoming Glass device to "apply" by sharing on Google+ or Twitter what they'd do "#ifihadglass." Those selected for the program, based on their reply to the prompt, will be eligible to buy the $1,500 high-tech headwear before its official release sometime next year.
On Tuesday, Google started sending out tweets -- at the rate of around 400 an hour -- telling people who'd been selected that they'd been "invited to join our #glassexplorers program."
Only it turns out some of those invitations went to people they shouldn't have -- and to people who didn't even mean to apply for the Glass program to begin with -- sparking some speculation that Google's selection process was more random, and less selective, than the company had implied.
"We're gonna need to disqualify a few non-compliant #ifihadglass applications that snuck through," read a tweet from the official Project Glass Twitter account sent Tuesday evening.
The Twitterers retroactively booted from Google's Explorer program included users such as @Nikki__Graziano ("#ifihadglass I'd cut a b*tch!") and @wutabril ("#ifihadglass, I'd throw it at your face. ._.").
@Nikki__Graziano tweeted on Thursday that she didn't even realize she was entering Google's "contest" by using the #ifihadglass hashtag, which was trending on Twitter shortly after Google announced it was taking applications. Her tweet seems to make slightly more sense if the "glass" in the hashtag is read as a reference to glass, not Glass.
"Like seriously all my interactions revolve around this old tweet and a bunch of strangers ... What is going on lol," she tweeted, adding later, "hahahah this is hilarious! I had no idea what I was doing but now everyone's pissed at me. Apparently I won LOLOL!"
Google explained its move to disqualify some Explorers in a post on Google+. A Google spokesman declined to specify how many people were disqualified or why they managed to slip through the vetting process. An independent group was responsible for reviewing and evaluating the submissions, the spokesman said.
"With #ifihadglass we set out to find a truly diverse group of Explorers, and that’s certainly what we’ve gotten," Google wrote in a statement. "We need honest feedback from people who are not only enthralled and excited by Glass, but also people who are skeptical and critical of it. That said, it’s become clear that a few applications that don’t comply with our terms have slipped through the cracks, and we’re going to have to disqualify applications like these. As for the rest of you, please keep that feedback coming -- it’s all in the Explorer program spirit!"
People invited to buy Glass as part of the Explorer Program include a wedding photographer, a high-school football coach, a travel writer and a paleontologist, as well as people who merely used the #ifihadglass hashtag to marvel that anyone would ever want to pay $1,500 for such a device.
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