Google Has a 'Killer App' Waiting in the Wings

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- We've all seen Google's(GOOG) April 4 video, posted on Google+, depicting some of the potential uses for the Google eyeglasses that are in development.

Google employees received some form of demo in conjunction with this video.

The potential uses for augmented-reality eyeglasses are almost endless. Some of them are depicted in the video, and they are all praiseworthy. One can assume that our military already is using glasses with some of these capabilities, presumably at an astronomical cost that is still well worth it.

That said, I believe there will be a killer app that lifts these glasses to must-have prominence.

The key will be people. Things are just that: things. In contrast, for most people, there is nothing as interesting as ... other people. Ultimately, it is people who make and lose money, people who are heroes or villains, and people who are either bystanders or prime movers in advancing humanity. People are nosier about other people than they are about things.

A person's ID contains a treasure trove of useful information when connected to the relevant databases, and the first link to those databases often occurs through a Google search. Every time we see a person, the amount of obtainable data is enormous. This works well if we already know how to ID this person. Everyone can do some decent research if simply given a little bit of time in front of a computer of some sort.

The problem is that in the real world we meet new people all the time, but we don't have time to research them before we need to decide how, if at all, we should spend time with them.

Whether in business or social situations, it happens to people almost every day. It might be someone trying to sell you something or someone you meet in a bar. You will want to know what this person's business reputation is, or whether this person has spent time behind bars for doing something creepy.

When you don't have a person's name, the key to identifying them becomes becomes facial recognition. We all know how facial recognition works at Web sites such as Picasa and Facebook.

Every day, millions of people tag photos, voluntarily building a gold mine of information for anyone who needs to quickly identify everyone in society.