Google is in the business of extracting as much information as possible

Google is in the business of extracting as much information as possible from the world so they can better target ads for their customers. Many of their ideas for doing this, like Android, are not only great but terribly effective. This talking shoe concept, which was shown off at SXSWi recently, goes a little too far.

Imagine sneakers that could connect to your phone via Bluetooth and feed apps information about how your run is going. They maybe they will pull in GPS data and create some nice graphs about your run. Maybe this information is exciting enough to you that Google will wrap it up in a format that can be easily posted to Google+. It’s even possible that, after a certain number of steps at a certain speed, your phone polls your GPS and Google Local for a good place to stop and get a drink or an energy bar. Sound like ideas that a lot of people would enjoy, right? What’s the one thing that could ruin that entire experience? When your phone uses all of that information to talk to you.

It’s no shock that Google’s Bluetooth-enabled shoe prototypes are all about collecting information and presenting it for both the users and the advertisers. It’s really unlikely that Google is going to get into the shoe business anytime soon — this is more a proof-of-concept. And as far as tech demos go, this isn’t so bad. When you look at how personal area networks and the “internet of things” comes together to grab tons of little bits of data from all over and turn it into useful personal add-ons, shoes that could help you out like this would be great.

The problem with this concept comes in right at the end, where the shoes feel the need to let you know when they are bored, or to congratulate you when you are really active. It could just be me, but I’ve got a feeling that there’s not many people out there who want their robotic shoes to cheer them on.