It really is amazing. Was able to scrape a LOT of gorilla tape (it's like FlexTape) residue off of a painted surface using a few applications of goo gone, and an improvised plastic squeegee last weekend. No scratches on the paint, and no more than about 2 minutes of effort on my part.
The only time it's disappointed me was when I was trying to use it -- among a variety of other substances -- to deal with something other than sticker goo.
A few years back, a bunch of electronic devices were sold in the US that used some sort of rubberized coating that gave them a nice grippy feeling. Unfortunately, it turns out that after a couple of years, the coating degraded and turned into an incredibly sticky mess. I had a Grundig G6 Aviator shortwave radio that was affected, as well as a few other devices. It felt a bit like sticker adhesive, but trying to clean the stuff off with Goo Gone didn't work well (ultimately, isopropyl alcohol and a lot of elbow grease wound up being my most-successful combination).
But for what it is actually billed for, adhesive residue, I've had good experiences.
Note that Goo Gone, or at least the variant I have, has a quite-strong citrus smell, which I assume is there to mask some less-pleasant smell that the active ingredients have. So when I use the stuff, everything nearby smells like oranges for a while. Haven't had a situation where that's a problem yet, but thought I'd mention it in case it would be an issue for anyone else using it.
If it's a rubberized coating on new devices, it may be a similar formula that doesn't have the degradation problem. I haven't personally had any devices do that in several years (not saying that there aren't products that do, mind).
And I remember that when the coating was new, before it broke down into a horrible sticky mess in a few years after purchase, it did feel pretty good to me. And it seemed pretty durable -- like, it didn't wear through or anything.
Just that when the Stickyocalypse did happen, it was awful.
I remember reading on Reddit once that people who bought a variety of dress shoes with a particular type of substance used in their soft soles had something similar happen. For a few years, many types of shoes from different manufacturers would break down and degrade in the closet. You take them out after a couple years, and they just crumbled apart. Wasn't a sticky mess, but I bet that people who rarely wore those shoes were pretty irked.
Or any kind of oil. Even WD-40, if you have it. Put oil on the adhesive residue, then scrub it off with a cloth. You can then remove the oily residue with soap.
Lots of good suggestions in this thread already, but long ago I used to work at a company that sold second-hand stuff where we often had to deal with stubborn labels and I haven't seen our "nuclear option" mentioned yet. Brake cleaner, which is basically an organic solvent in a spray can, should be great on glass. Be careful with it, though, it melts some kinds of plastics. And ensure it's used in a well-ventilated area.
Try that if the usual GooGone type stuff doesn't work.
We also used WD40, it tended to be gentler on plastics. Though it left a greasy residue that we'd need to clean off afterward and it was pretty slow.
I have had great luck removing labels by filling bottles / jars with boiling water and letting them sit a few minutes. I mostly do this to save wine labels I like or want to remember. When doing this it is also very easy to wipe off any residue.
This is my go-to method due to it being dirt cheap and simple
If I don’t need to keep the label sometimes I’ll just chuck it in the dishwasher and try to remember to peel the label right after the cycle ends, while the item is still hot
i haven’t tried olive oil and other similar oils like others have suggested, but there’s a product in my country that’s specifically sticky stuff remover (like label residue) and it’s made of orange oil
It's in the peels and has lots of the fruits flavour. All citrus have it, that's why you grind a bit of lemon peel into your food: It tastes way more lemony than the juice.
I like to use WD-40, I just lube it up and massage the adhesive until it dissolves into a goo that can be removed with dish soap. I find the goo-gone that I tried evaporates too quickly to soak into stiffer jar label adhesives.
An Oxyclean soak is the most common way I see homebrewers recommend for removing labels from bottles. Definitely a good choice if being food safe matters.
Goo-B-Gone or Goo-Gone, plus steel wool like SOS pads or Scotch-Guard. Razors would work if it was a flat surface, but on a curved one like a bottle or glass, you want the flexibility of the steel wool.
Nobody's mentioned lighter fluid so far, but that stuff works well. Dad always used Ronsonol and it's quite cheap. It's also highly flammable, so mind that.
The lighter fluid that the parent poster is talking about, Ronsonol, is not the stuff that goes in butane lighters, nor is it the "lighter fluid" used to start charcoal barbecues. He's talking about the stuff that goes into Zippo and similar refillable lighters, stuff that's also called "naphtha".
If you want to use it as a solvent with much frequency, you can get the stuff at dramatically-lower unit prices in much larger containers than what Ronsonol is sold at.
Keep in mind that this is potent stuff and can damage some surfaces. For example, another user is talking about using Goo Gone above to remove adhesive from paint on a wall. Naphtha is more-or-less paint thinner -- your wall's paint will dissolve in it. It'd be fine on glass, what OP is intending it for, but if you use it elsewhere, be careful with it, try it on a small amount of the surface somewhere first to see if it damages it.
It can also cause skin irritation. Probably not a big deal unless you're regularly using it, but worth keeping in mind.
I also have a container of white spirits, which are similar but less volatile.
I don't smoke, but I absolutely adore the sound that a Zippo makes when flicked open and struck, and wanted to get one a while back. I was kind of appalled at the fluid pricing -- the Zippo-brand fluid is even pricier, and I've seen the Ronsonol fluid itself recommended as a lower-priced alternative.
There are a lot of other things that people can burn in the refillable lighters, but I went through various testing that other people did and tried some myself, and none other than naphtha are really satisfactory. Some -- like white spirits -- aren't volatile enough, and won't maintain a consistent flame. Some, like gasoline, or low-water-content isopropyl alcohol, are too volatile and evaporate even more quickly than the regular fluid does or risk making an out-of-control fire.
Also works for the hand-warmers, which use the same fuel (and go through a great deal more of it than the lighters, so it's more-important there).
On an side note, I really wish that lighters of that sort would introduce some type of gasket that isn't dissolved by the fuel to help reduce the fuel vapor leaking out of the device when closed, or maybe some sort of other mechanism that seals the fuel reservoir off when the lighters are closed. As it stands, for a regular smoker, the fuel loss isn't a huge deal, but for someone who infrequently uses a lighter of the sort, the fuel loss is much more obnoxious -- it only takes several weeks for the reservoir to empty itself, in my experience.
Alcohol solvent can make this worse depending on the adhesive. It can just spread the stuff and thin it out. Someone else suggested oil, that's the ticket. Bit of olive oil on a rough cloth brings it right up. Wd40 was also suggested, same idea. You want it to move easily, not dissolve.
WD40 is great for dealing with things that are rusted in place, which is what it's supposed to be used for. It's just that it's not a great lubricating oil, and people often recommend it for use as that. Too thin and leaves a waxy residue to repel more water from rusting the surface, which you often don't want in things that you're lubricating.
I suggest, if it's not too gooey, grab some packing tape, and press it on the adhesive. Then, pull it off quickly. You might have to do this a few times, but it's the best method I've found that doesn't leave residue, and also works with most sticky adhesives.
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