22 Technologies Once Called “The Future” a Decade Ago — Which Ones Actually Disappeared?
BuzzFeed published a reader-driven roundup on November 3 looking back at products and ideas that technology companies and media once described as the future. The article collects 22 responses from readers, mentioning 3D televisions, Google Glass, virtual reality, the metaverse, blockchain, solar roadways, cloud gaming and 3D printing. It is not a market-research report. The list is based on a Reddit discussion, so it captures public memories of technology hype rather than proving that every technology on it has disappeared or failed.
3D television is one of the clearest examples in the roundup. The success of Avatar in 2010 helped fuel a home-3D push, and manufacturers released televisions that required active-shutter or polarized glasses. But the extra equipment, limited programming and uncomfortable viewing experience made the feature difficult to turn into a household habit.
A Digital Trends retrospective says 3D TVs accounted for 23% of television sales dollars in 2012, but only 8% by 2016. Vizio stopped making 3D sets in 2013, Samsung left the category in 2016, and Sony and LG later removed the feature from their televisions. The format did not vanish from cinema, but it lost its place as a mainstream living-room selling point.
Google Glass followed a different path. It was promoted as a new computing platform after smartphones, but price, privacy concerns and a lack of compelling everyday uses limited consumer adoption. Google stopped selling the Explorer consumer edition in 2015 and shifted the project toward enterprise applications. Smart glasses did not disappear; the product vision moved away from everyone wearing a visible display and toward more discreet cameras, voice features and AI assistance.
Around 2016, virtual reality was often described as the next major computing platform. Oculus, HTC and Sony brought headsets to market, and forecasts projected rapid growth. Yet comfort, price, content cadence and the friction of wearing a headset for long sessions made it difficult to replace smartphones or become an everyday device for most people.
That does not mean VR has failed. An eMarketer analysis in 2026 says the US virtual-technology market has found a core audience but is moving into a slower growth phase. Augmented reality, by contrast, has reached more people through smartphone filters, shopping tools and games. IDC reported that display-less smart-glasses shipments rose 167% year over year in the first quarter of 2026, suggesting that wearable computing is evolving in a different form. The metaverse has also shifted from speculative virtual property and token projects toward more concrete gaming, social and enterprise uses.
The BuzzFeed list also mentions smart homes, Blu-ray, nanotechnology, graphene batteries, solar roadways, digital movie downloads, augmented-reality games, cloud gaming, blockchain voting, Bitcoin payments, curved screens and 3D printing. These technologies did not all follow the same path. Some markets contracted, some were displaced by more convenient alternatives, and others continue in specialized settings.
Cloud gaming services have closed or been restructured, but streaming games have not disappeared. 3D printing never became a standard consumer appliance in every household, yet it remains useful in manufacturing, medicine, education and prototyping. Blockchain did not become a universal database for every industry, but crypto assets and selected supply-chain applications remain active. Calling all of these technologies failures overlooks the value they may have in professional or niche markets.
Some forecasts are now becoming real, although not always in the form originally promised. Stanford's 2026 retrospective says driverless vehicles are operating routinely in several US cities. But researchers found that the final stretch toward safe autonomy was much harder than early optimism suggested: weather, road markings, edge cases and safety validation all proved difficult.
Smart glasses are also seeing a new wave of growth in 2026, particularly products without a built-in display that emphasize voice and cameras. The lesson from the 22-item roundup is not that every old prediction was foolish. It is that a technology can fall short of the grand promise while surviving in a smaller, more useful form. The market often chooses the version that is cheaper, easier and better suited to existing habits.