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Comment by splonk | Hacker News Reader

The two biggest "wow" reactions I ever heard at Google's company wide meetings were from the Keyhole/Google Earth demo right after they were acquired, and the first Google Maps demo with scrollable maps. IIRC the Keyhole demo started with the full planet view from space and then did a smooth continuous scroll into the Grand Canyon. Pretty mindblowing back in 2005 or thereabouts.

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It’s amusing how quickly Maps overtook Earth and then absorbed it.

The practicality of having a total guide to location via search/address/direction far outweighed the appeal of a visual location you can find.

Interesting to think: What demos are happening now that elicit a similar response?

Looking at the last ~8 years of “technology” releases but I’d deign to say no demos are eliciting that response.

I don't believe this was the UI that was eventually released, but I got a demo of an Glass prototype where the way to interact was to focus your vision on the buttons in the corner of the virtual screen to click. When the guy told me that, at first I thought "you've got to be kidding me" and very shortly thereafter it was "holy shit this is awesome."

That reminds me, a couple years ago I ran into a guy working for a company that could wirelessly power displays in a contact lens. Not remotely practical and I think it was maybe a couple hundred pixels at most, but definitely more of that living in future vibe.

There have been a few but they were mostly marketing bullshit. The google glass announcements impressed many even though they never delivered the initial demo. There was also that demo where they showed googles AI calling a store for you to book a haircut which also ended up being fake and never delivered.

Boston Dynamics maybe.

Automatic booking of restaurants via telephone

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