Bongs are the early forms of waterpipes, they are in use for centuries now in the far East. There were numerous improvements recently: The smoke can be cooled by creating a vortex with the shape of the pipe, or by leading the smoke through a longer pipe.
A glass bong represents quality. The carefully designed shape of this bong creates vortices in the smoke, thus it gets a lot more cooler. This way the smoke is even more enjoyable!