Google opens Winter Wonderlab pop

Google is opening a series of pop-up shops for the holiday season to show off the Nexus 7, Chromecast, and the latest Chromebooks. The shops, called Winter Wonderlabs, are in six cities: New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Sacramento, Washington, DC, and Paramus, NJ. While they're not quite as exciting as a mysterious barge, Google has turned its locations into sleek stores outfitted for the season - there's even a giant snow globe you can go inside that'll shoot slow motion video of you jumping around in CGI snowfall. The stores' exact locations can be found at Google's Wonderlab website.

Unfortunately, the Wonderlabs won't be showing off Google Glass, so it seems that those eager to try one out may have to wait until those mystery barges are unveiled - that is, should they be showrooms for Glass and other tech as they've been rumored to be. But even without the company's most intriguing product, the Wonderlabs signal an even further interest by Google into retail, something that it hasn't had much of a need for until recently. While it's hard to imagine a larger expansion for now, even this limited marketing shows Google has some serious confidence in its latest products.