硅谷风投三剑客合体力挺谷歌眼镜

    一身运动短裤短袖，一双蓝色卡洛驰（Crocs）鞋，这位谷歌（Google）联合创始人骑着一辆健身椭圆自行车出现在大家面前。这就是典型的谢尔盖•布林就是这个样子。和这些天他每次出现时一样，他的头上还戴着一副谷歌眼镜（Google Glass）。这款充满未来感的头戴式电脑连接着一个微型显示器。哦，他还迟到了几分钟。

    当时的场合是：硅谷三家大型投资公司宣布，将联合起来吸引感兴趣的创业家们围绕谷歌眼镜开发相关产品和服务。尽管此时谷歌眼镜尚未公开发售，也没有大范围地向开发人员开放。谷歌风投子公司Google Ventures、安德森-霍罗维茨风险投资公司（Andreessen Horowitz）和凯鹏华盈（Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers）周三宣布，将建立一个联合投资体Glass collective。这不是一个新的基金——我的同事丹•普里马克曾作出这样的预计——也不承诺共同投资相关交易。事实上，这意味着三家公司同意分享潜在的种子阶段投资机会。如果一位基于谷歌眼镜的创业者联系到其中的一家公司，所有这三家公司都会与这位创业者会面，但它们会单独决定是否向该业务投资。

    在某种程度上，大家可以把它看成是三家大型投资公司的市场推广合作，目的是尽早发掘优秀点子，甚至是在点子还没有孵化前就锁定目标。对于打算依托于谷歌眼镜进行创业的人，它传递的信息是：先来找我们吧。“网络不再是在口袋里，它就在你的眼前，”凯鹏华盈的约翰•杜尔在谈到谷歌眼镜时说。“这是欣赏世界的全新方式。”

    与杜尔、布林站在一起的还有安德森-霍罗维茨风险投资公司的马克•安德森和Google Ventures的比尔•玛利斯。杜尔投资过安德森的第一家初创企业Netscape，也投资过布林的初创企业谷歌。他说，这个投资联合体有点像是“原班人马重聚”。

    安德森称，这个联合体吸引他的部分因素在于它与谷歌眼镜的并行关系。在他看来，谷歌眼镜不是一款产品，而是一个平台，是网络浏览器。“将来人们能够在这上面建立的应用范围之广将难以估量，”安德森表示。他预计未来谷歌眼镜的升级改良将呈现“突飞猛进”的态势。但即便是只看现有版本，谷歌眼镜提供的平台也已经“非常诱人”。

    如今的谷歌眼镜可以通过语音命令和触摸显示屏框架来进行操控，可以做的事不多。它可以拍照、发信息、在谷歌上提问，等等。我请每位演示者描述一下未来可能会有什么样的应用。

    布林说，他希望能将谷歌眼镜作为自己SLR相机的取景器，方便及时抓拍照片。早年曾从事生物科技行业的玛利斯表示，他希望能有一些可加载实验方案的应用，这样科学家就能解放双手用于实验。安德森则表示，医疗领域可能蕴藏着巨大的谷歌眼镜应用潜力。他问到：“如果不管遇上什么样的医疗状况，每位医生或护理人员都能有一份实时的指导手册来应对，结果会怎样？”

    杜尔则希望开发人员能创造更多教育领域的应用，但他同时也说，对于这样一项全新的技术，很难预料开发人员会着力发展哪个领域。他说：“它超出了过去我看到过的任何平台，我无法想象人们会拿它做些什么。”(财富中文网)

    It was classic Sergey Brin. Dressed in sports shorts, an exercise shirt and blue Crocs, the Google co-founder showed up riding an elliptical bicycle, and as he does these days, wearing Glass, Google's futuristic wearable computer that fits on a head mounted display. Oh, and he was a few minutes late.

    The occasion: An announcement that three Silicon Valley investment powerhouses are teaming up to attract entrepreneurs interested in building businesses around Glass. Never mind that Glass is not yet available to the public or to large numbers of developers. Google Ventures, Andreessen Horowitz and Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers said Wednesday that they are forming the "Glass collective." It is neither a new fund—as my colleague Dan Primack predicted—nor a commitment to co-invest in deals. Instead, it's an agreement by the three firms to share potential seed-stage investments. If a Glass entrepreneur contacts one of the firms, all three firms will get to meet her, but will decide independently whether or not to invest in the business.

    In way, you can think of the collective as a marketing partnership by the three marquee investment firms to capture the most interesting ideas even before they are hatched. To potential Glass entrepreneurs, it says: come to us first. "The web is no longer in your pocket, it is right before your very eyes," said John Doerr, of Kleiner Perkins, in reference to Google (GOOG) Glass. "This could be a whole new way to appreciate the world."

    Doerr and Brin were joined by Marc Andreessen, of Andreessen Horowitz and Bill Maris, of Google Ventures. And Doerr, who invested in Andreessen's first startup, Netscape, and in Brin's startup, Google, said the collective was a bit like "getting the band together again."

    Andreessen said he was attracted to the collective, in part because of the parallels between Glass, which he described not as a product but rather as a platform, and the Web browser. "The range of applications that people can build on this thing is absolutely amazing" Andreessen said. He predicted that Glass would get better by "leaps and bounds" but said that even its first version, Glass is a "very compelling platform."

    Today, Glass, which is operated via voice commands and by touching the display's frame, does just a few things. It can take pictures, send messages, pose qu

estions to Google, among other things. I asked each of the presenters to describe the kinds of applications that might be possible in the future potential.

    Brin said he would like to use Glass as the viewfinder for his SLR camera in order to be able to take pictures more spontaneously. Maris, who early in his career worked in the biotechnology industry, said he would like to see applications that would load lab protocols so scientist could conduct experiments hands-free. Andreessen said healthcare was a field that could see great applications for Glass. "What if every doctor or paramedic had an instantaneous guide to deal with any medical situation," he asked.

    Doerr, for his part, said he hoped developers would create applications in the education field, but said that with a technology this new, it would be difficult to predict what entrepreneurs would focus on. "More than any platform I've seen before, I can't imagine that people are going to do with this," he said.