How Google won the Internet with its live sky-diving demo

The demo of Google glasses which earned the company a massive standing ovation will have the Internet talking for some time. Google demonstrated the device by having parachutists jump out of a blimp hovering about 7,000 feet above San Francisco. The audience got live video feeds from their glasses as they descended to land on the roof of the Moscone Center, the location of the conference. [caption id=“attachment_361240” align=“alignleft” width=“380” caption=“Google co-founder Sergey Brin with the Google glasses: AFP”]  [/caption] In Google’s own words, “We worked with some of the world’s top athletes, combined skydiving and mountain biking, and shared the experience – through their eyes – with the world.” And the reviews were overwhelming. PCWorld called the demo “The greatest show on earth” while TechCrunch gave it even higher praise saying the video was “Google’s winning answer to Steve Jobs’ “One More Thing” and for the moment, it made Apple’s ground-based surprises seem less dramatic.” High praise indeed. Watch the video: But how did Google do it? According to TechCrunch it was not easy. The tech website spoke to Google and discovered that being that awesome took a lot of boring legal work, liaisons with government officials and general geekiness. From enlisting jumpers to sorting out niggling issues like permission to open a blimp door in mid-air so that they could jump out of it, TechCrunch has the fascinating story of how Google worked over six weeks to put the moment together. At the beginning of the video, Google co-founder Sergey Brin admits that there are “500 ways in which this can go wrong”. Thankfully it didn’t.