Google Glass is one of the trendiest technologies out there right now, but it’s hard to tell who it’s actually useful for. One group that stands out is publishers and journalists who can use Glass to chronicle their stories through rich, on-the-fly media experiences. And as the world’s largest publishing platform, it was only a matter of time before WordPress and Google Glass hooked up. Now, thanks to Weber Shandwick, that time has come. wpForGlass is the first plugin that allows you to post to your WordPress blog from Google Glass.
The workflow for wpForGlass is fairly simple and it’s use case is pretty clear. The plugin uses the Mirror API from Google to allow users to post photos and videos taken with Google Glass and post them on your WordPress blog, using voice recognition to add a caption.
Here’s a video by the plugin’s creator demonstrating how it works.
At the moment, setting up wpForGlass can be a bit cumbersome. It requires you to install the plugin, configure a Google Mirror API project then enter the credentials back into the plugin. Finally, you’ll have to set up a cron job to get Mirror notifications to work properly and allow two-way communication between Google Glass and WordPress. There’s obviously a little work to be done here in terms of user experience but it’s not bad for a first go.
Still, the plugin has some nice features and is obviously forward thinking. Media is uploaded to your own server so that they can be accessed from your own media library, which can be pretty handy. I’m sure there’s a way to use it so that Google Glass users can upload videos and images wherever they are, and admin users manning the blog can pull them and use them in posts pretty easily.
I’ll also note that adding captions with voice is not currently an active feature, but according to Mashable it’s “in the pipeline.”
For me, there quite a few possibilities. Publishers can use this to live blog events they attend or to send out quick updates. Journalists can use this combination as a living research journal, with a quick and easy way to add updates. Even bloggers can use this to integrate photos and video into their posts without having to interrupt their work. Imagine food bloggers who can take photos of a recipe they are working on, step by step, without having to move back and forth between a camera, a computer and the stove. But hey, those are just a few simple examples. How do you think this new technology can be used? Let us know in the comments.
The plugin is completely open source and the code is hosted on GitHub so be sure to take a look if you’re a curious developer. There’s obviously some room for improvement, but it’s nice to see some first steps. I, for one, was not one of the elite group of Google Glass Explorers. But if you do own a pair, take the plugin for a spin and let us know how it went.
What do you think? Would your blog (or your client’s) benefit from being able to post directly from Google Glass?
Jay Hoffmann is a WordPress developer hailing from NYC. In the strictest sense of the word, he is a WordPress enthusiast with an eye for front-end development and design. He has been working with WordPress since 2006 and currently works for a popular children’s media company. This year, Jay started Tidy Repo, a curated list of the best and most reliable plugins from around the web. You can also follow Jay on Twitter.
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