Why the failure of Google Glass is good for Google

The San Francisco Chronicle reports:

When Google said last week that it would, for now, shelve its much-maligned Google Glass project, the world was quick to pronounce the experiment a failure. It was derided as a solution in search of a problem. It was badly designed, or perhaps just mismanaged. Or maybe the world simply wasn’t ready for a computer you wear on your face.

Over the years, Google has steadily churned out its share of major failures — projects such as Google Wave, Google Buzz and Google Lively, the company’s short-lived answer to virtual world Second Life.

Risk and returns.