It seems like most of the recording complaints regard the ease recording in public -- and to a further extent recording without anyone knowing they're being filmed. Both issues, in my opinion, are pretty moot. Public places are, well, public. If you make a fool of yourself in public, you really shouldn't have any issues making a fool of yourself on YouTube. Getting together with strangers who decide to record using their Google Goggles in public means simply means you have to decide if you want to hang around those new people or not. If someone records you in private, that's a whoooole different ballgame.
Besides, there's plenty of devices out there that are much more discrete than Google Glasses and/or far less expensive, even for recording quality 1080p video. See PivotHead's lineup. And it's easy to just sit there and "play with your phone" while recording something. Or maybe take it out of your pocket to "check your email" while you start a voice recording app, then lay it down on the table to jump back into the conversation as you misdirect people from what you did.
*Anyway*, tinfoil hat stuff aside, Google Goggles as a product itself might fail. It certainly has a plethora of uses, but how many of these are practical in a multi-use consumer device could be questionable at this stage. As a concept it's going to succeed, guaranteed. Even if GG disappears, the technology and applications will continue to develop and integrated/wearable computers are going to be commonplace.
BTW: anyone thinking of Denou Coil? A whole second persistent cyber world superimposed over the real world if you're wearing smart glasses. Not quite GITS, but similiar.
I'd love to have a HUD display in my motorcycle helmets. I've seen some helmets dabble with it, but not very effectively. Some sort of Google Goggles type drop-in solution for a helmet would be excellent. It'd combine existing HUD technology like someone mentioned in BMWs, with additional networked features like traffic/construction, landmark identification, easy to use POV video streaming, group comms, even things like FOF/info tags for other riders/drivers in your group. More advanced versions might permit things like realtime distance measuring, ghost telemetry, automatic hazard highlighting, suggested corner entry/exit speeds, etc. Really, having this in a helmet format isn't needed, but is more convienent than wearing glasses under a helmet.