Redditors banded together to discuss gadgets and technological developments that were marketed and projected to be top hits, and yet failed to leave any significant mark on pop culture as a whole.
The thread, found under the subreddit r/AskReddit, kicked off by a simple question posed by user u/LineOfDeath, who asked redditors what was supposed to be the "Next Big Thing", but failed to do so and flopped. An enthusiastic 51.9K+ comments followed, as the community banded together to laugh it up over the misguided attempts of those in the past. The thread as a whole warrants discussion simply owing to how it both encapsulates the feeling of going through a time capsule (forgive the pun), while also highlighting how trends on the internet can rarely ever be predicted or planned out.
Does anyone remember Amazon Buttons? These buttons were heavily advertised by Amazon as an easy go-to solution for ordering household items online. Each button corresponded to a particular brand and item, with selections such as paper towels and detergents, and cost about USD $5. The item itself seemed novel enough that people bought into it early on, only to then absolutely jump ship right after. Some Redditors even commented on the unfortunate coincidence of the Buttons being announced on the 1st of April, followed by Amazon having to assure its customer base that they weren't an April Fool's prank, but instead revolutionary household items. Ultimately, for the few that bought into them, the buttons are probably collecting dust, and Amazon gave up on them, discontinuing the product line in early 2019.
Perhaps one of the most ridiculed examples of "The Next Big Flop", as I'll now deign to call it, comes in the form of Google+. Ah yes, Google took a quick glance at the social media landscape, littered by giants such as Facebook and the fading Myspace and decided that it, too, could keep pace. A Redditor humorously quipped that Google+ was a better social media platform than Facebook, other than the fact that absolutely no one ever used it, which inherently also made it much, much worse than Facebook. Ultimately, the platform didn't really have much draw to it, especially since everything it offered could be substituted by the likes of Facebook and Reddit itself. The product was eventually discontinued by Google, only remembered as the butt of everyone's jokes on the internet.
The thread, found under the subreddit r/AskReddit, kicked off by a simple question posed by user u/LineOfDeath, who asked redditors what was supposed to be the "Next Big Thing", but failed to do so and flopped. An enthusiastic 51.9K+ comments followed, as the community banded together to laugh it up over the misguided attempts of those in the past. The thread as a whole warrants discussion simply owing to how it both encapsulates the feeling of going through a time capsule (forgive the pun), while also highlighting how trends on the internet can rarely ever be predicted or planned out.
Does anyone remember Amazon Buttons? These buttons were heavily advertised by Amazon as an easy go-to solution for ordering household items online. Each button corresponded to a particular brand and item, with selections such as paper towels and detergents, and cost about USD $5. The item itself seemed novel enough that people bought into it early on, only to then absolutely jump ship right after. Some Redditors even commented on the unfortunate coincidence of the Buttons being announced on the 1st of April, followed by Amazon having to assure its customer base that they weren't an April Fool's prank, but instead revolutionary household items. Ultimately, for the few that bought into them, the buttons are probably collecting dust, and Amazon gave up on them, discontinuing the product line in early 2019.
Perhaps one of the most ridiculed examples of "The Next Big Flop", as I'll now deign to call it, comes in the form of Google+. Ah yes, Google took a quick glance at the social media landscape, littered by giants such as Facebook and the fading Myspace and decided that it, too, could keep pace. A Redditor humorously quipped that Google+ was a better social media platform than Facebook, other than the fact that absolutely no one ever used it, which inherently also made it much, much worse than Facebook. Ultimately, the platform didn't really have much draw to it, especially since everything it offered could be substituted by the likes of Facebook and Reddit itself. The product was eventually discontinued by Google, only remembered as the butt of everyone's jokes on the internet.
A final product that I'm only very willing to talk about is also made by Google. I also imagine that more than half of the readers have at this point also guessed the product in question. Yes, we're now talking about Google Glass. What was the tech giant thinking, really? Making a pair of incredibly unfashionable glasses that looked like they came out of a future envisioned by movie-makers in the 1980's, that completed tasks any decent mobile phone of the time easily completed in its stead, there really was no place for the Google Glass in this world. And, accordingly, it joins the ranks of irrelevancy, right at the end of this list.
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