Google, hold its 6th annual developer conference called I/O here in San Francisco, California, USA. It was my privilege to be at the conference & experience on what & how is Google working on redefining our life!
During this IO, Google talked about its each core product line & show-cased how they are deeply integrated with its other services for smarter & enriched user-experience. Let's walk through major updates in each area in a bit.
Key Note:
Being Indian, I feel proud to see 3 Indians on stage heading key portfolio at Google & talking about them - +Vic Gundotra for Social (Google+), +Sundar Pichai (Android, Chrome, Google Apps) and +Amit Singhal for Search. This keynote was being watched by 6,000 people present in the hall along with ~1Mn people watching it live through io-extended / youtube live setup. +Larry Page coming to the stage at the end was a surprise, and equally exciting to hear where he wants to take Google with more moonshots.
It emphasized growing importance of (a) Multiple smart displays like Mobile, Tablet, Computer, Watch, Glass, Car console, etc. (b) Smart sensors (c) Computing device (d) Personalized suggestions /intelligence on before what search request will be.
Other
Gmail: Quick Action buttons, schema integration for quick actions are new features within Inbox; money send through Google wallet from your gmail.
Sensors: Google used sensors customized using Arduino to capture various statistics (temperature, noise volume, people moving around, etc) right at the IO. They used Google's cloud platform to capture all this information, big query for pulling out data & graphical layout for representation. Refer to this talk for more details.
Developer Lounge: Google's developer relations team and advocates were having continous talks over new releases through Google Developers Live channel. Google Developers lounge was a central between product boths & sand boxes.
Fun@IO: Google+ air baloons where roaming over the IO hall. Robots, Google maps car, etc where in the lounge area. IO official party was geeky with robots around, Ingress gaming & more.
In a nutshell, users are moving to a multiple screen world and expect personalized service. Updates on Google Glass, Next service from Google 'X' would have been more exciting! May be next year. Overall, a great conference to be; hear in from Googlers, partners through their sandbox, developer advocates & more. I'll surely look forward to attend next year.
PS: In this blog, I'm covering major news / updates announced. YouTube video with talk on each topic can be found through GoogleDevelopers channel.
During this IO, Google talked about its each core product line & show-cased how they are deeply integrated with its other services for smarter & enriched user-experience. Let's walk through major updates in each area in a bit.
Key Note:
Being Indian, I feel proud to see 3 Indians on stage heading key portfolio at Google & talking about them - +Vic Gundotra for Social (Google+), +Sundar Pichai (Android, Chrome, Google Apps) and +Amit Singhal for Search. This keynote was being watched by 6,000 people present in the hall along with ~1Mn people watching it live through io-extended / youtube live setup. +Larry Page coming to the stage at the end was a surprise, and equally exciting to hear where he wants to take Google with more moonshots.
It emphasized growing importance of (a) Multiple smart displays like Mobile, Tablet, Computer, Watch, Glass, Car console, etc. (b) Smart sensors (c) Computing device (d) Personalized suggestions /intelligence on before what search request will be.
Android
+Sundar Pichai talking about Android activation's (900 Million), +Hugo Barra talked about download & installs (48 bn) and presented Google's Play Service, Gaming service, & more - details below.
Play Services
Play services are enriched with new features focusing on Google Maps API, Location API, GCM with upstream messaging & persistent connections; Synchronize notifications and Google+ SignIn for applications running on multiple platforms.
Game Service
Announced new Gaming service for its Android, iOS & web platform along with multi-player support.
Cloud Save, Achievements & leader boards, multi-players support are extensions of Cloud end-points; enabling its game developers build cross platform games and push them to users quickly. It also Integrates smoothly with Google+ circles for inviting friends to game and find new multi-players.
Development environment
Android Studio - Visual development IDE (along with Intelli-J) is in preview edition (v0.1) for developers. Its visual interface helps developers in looking at localized strings right from editor, UI display across multiple device form factors (phones of different sizes, tablets & more) & more.
Developer console now has an interface to test out Alpha, beta version of applications with your Google+ circles. Comments of this versions are private & not visible to everyone. It's big step in trying out your application with trusted circles before launching globally. Developer can also hire a language translator right from developer console for broader reach of its app.
Music
+Chris Yerga announced US only, subscription based streaming service. It gets on head to head with Pandora & Spotify.
Hardware / New version
New version of android & hardware was expected, like done in past IO. But this year, it was all about APIs. Samsung Galaxy S4 will soon get Google powered Nexus Experience directly from play store later in June this year. This indicates Google is working hard to ensure people get latest android upgrades & nexus experience on the android phone. There was enough emphasis on enhancements being made for more battery life & better performance.
Sundar, head for Android & Chrome, emphasized of two large growing & scalable, both continues to be important platforms for Google. It's all about building strong user experience on top of this platforms. There are countries where there is less than 10% of adoption of this platform(s). That's big opportunity.
Chrome & Apps
Sundar touched on growing segment of Google Apps in enterprise and talked about how Malaysia government is adopting Google Apps & chrome books for leading transformational change in education. He also talked out growing need for Apps in education. There was a booth at IO focused on Apps for education. Google continues to focus on speed, simplicity, and security through Chrome. Hence, Sundar is giving every IO attendees Chromebook pixel (Google thinks it as an ideal device - for which developers should build apps for).
There was a strong message on Mobile Web - Sundar said "With over 750 million active users on Chrome, we're now focused on bringing the Mobile the speed, simplicity and security improvements that we've seen on the desktop". It will be interesting to see how the boss of Android & Chrome going to get marriage of two powerful eco-system (Chrome & Android); though they continue to be distinct.
There was a strong message on Mobile Web - Sundar said "With over 750 million active users on Chrome, we're now focused on bringing the Mobile the speed, simplicity and security improvements that we've seen on the desktop". It will be interesting to see how the boss of Android & Chrome going to get marriage of two powerful eco-system (Chrome & Android); though they continue to be distinct.
Social (Google+)
Vic, talked about social media being flat with streams and unveiled revised Google+ layout of streams with depth, auto-hash-tagging, great improvement in pictures enhancement (important, clear pictures pops up keeping blurred, faded pictures aside). Animation of pictures (3-4 quick snapshot of motion) is indeed awesome!
It was evident from all sessions, how Google+ is an integral social platform with other services & not as a stand alone feature. Long awaited, upgrade of Google talk is here - New hangout app (available through Gmail, G+, Android, iOS) is here. It is combination of Text, Chat & Call. Competition to What'sApp? Initial usage of this app, leaves good impression (at least to me & my friends around). The best part is synchronization of notification through all end-points.
Vic, talked about social media being flat with streams and unveiled revised Google+ layout of streams with depth, auto-hash-tagging, great improvement in pictures enhancement (important, clear pictures pops up keeping blurred, faded pictures aside). Animation of pictures (3-4 quick snapshot of motion) is indeed awesome!
It was evident from all sessions, how Google+ is an integral social platform with other services & not as a stand alone feature. Long awaited, upgrade of Google talk is here - New hangout app (available through Gmail, G+, Android, iOS) is here. It is combination of Text, Chat & Call. Competition to What'sApp? Initial usage of this app, leaves good impression (at least to me & my friends around). The best part is synchronization of notification through all end-points.
Search
+Amit Singhal, gave a brief history of search to set context of what next consumers expect from search. It's clear Google Now, demonstrated last year is going to be main stream front end of search for Google. "OK Google" is a command to Google through Glass / Android / Chrome browser to ask for information & get audio translation, conversation, direction or similar information back from Google. Pretty impressive. Knowledge graph will be available in more languages, statistics search along with Knowledge graph will be part of main search. All this shall be available soon, but initially through Chrome browser.
+Amit Singhal, gave a brief history of search to set context of what next consumers expect from search. It's clear Google Now, demonstrated last year is going to be main stream front end of search for Google. "OK Google" is a command to Google through Glass / Android / Chrome browser to ask for information & get audio translation, conversation, direction or similar information back from Google. Pretty impressive. Knowledge graph will be available in more languages, statistics search along with Knowledge graph will be part of main search. All this shall be available soon, but initially through Chrome browser.
Maps
Refined vector maps, with 3-D, indoor maps, personalized maps is the future. Search, reviews, ratings are better integrated within maps. Red bubbles are re-designed for better display of point-of-interest. Google earth is now part of this map & all available through web. No more downloads !!! This limited preview will be gradually rolled out to more & more users. Talks like tracking ships with maps & cloud was interesting.
Glass
Couple of sessions on Understanding Glass, building apps, hacking device has been useful to understand the dynamics of wearable computing. We all acknowledge the fact of being in early days of wearable computing (through glass or smart watches, health gadgets). A lot needs to be done (privacy, user-experience, time-critical information), etc needs to be well looked through before they become easy accessible to common man. A both on Glass with developers from 'X' team around was great to interact with & learn more. But till then it continues to be a geeky gadget everyone wants to have.
Couple of sessions on Understanding Glass, building apps, hacking device has been useful to understand the dynamics of wearable computing. We all acknowledge the fact of being in early days of wearable computing (through glass or smart watches, health gadgets). A lot needs to be done (privacy, user-experience, time-critical information), etc needs to be well looked through before they become easy accessible to common man. A both on Glass with developers from 'X' team around was great to interact with & learn more. But till then it continues to be a geeky gadget everyone wants to have.
Cloud
+Urs Hölzle announced Google Compute Engine (GCE) is out from Limited Beta to Beta service with sub hour billing, shared core instance, advanced routing, large persistent disk (up to 10TB) Multiple pricing models, including minimum 10 minute usage with 1 minute incremental.
Google App Engine adds support for PHP language. Good to see +Amit Singh & his team present during this session.
Surprisingly last year, GCE was announced as a part of keynote & saw great interest. This year, cloud updates happened in one of the session rooms & not on the key note stage. Developers learned about it, as day progressed.
Google analytics premium data through Google's Big query is coming soon.
Unified storage: Google Apps customers, will now have 30GB of unified storage to use between Drive, Gmail, Google+ photos.
Google analytics premium data through Google's Big query is coming soon.
Unified storage: Google Apps customers, will now have 30GB of unified storage to use between Drive, Gmail, Google+ photos.
Other
Gmail: Quick Action buttons, schema integration for quick actions are new features within Inbox; money send through Google wallet from your gmail.
Sensors: Google used sensors customized using Arduino to capture various statistics (temperature, noise volume, people moving around, etc) right at the IO. They used Google's cloud platform to capture all this information, big query for pulling out data & graphical layout for representation. Refer to this talk for more details.
Developer Lounge: Google's developer relations team and advocates were having continous talks over new releases through Google Developers Live channel. Google Developers lounge was a central between product boths & sand boxes.
Fun@IO: Google+ air baloons where roaming over the IO hall. Robots, Google maps car, etc where in the lounge area. IO official party was geeky with robots around, Ingress gaming & more.
In a nutshell, users are moving to a multiple screen world and expect personalized service. Updates on Google Glass, Next service from Google 'X' would have been more exciting! May be next year. Overall, a great conference to be; hear in from Googlers, partners through their sandbox, developer advocates & more. I'll surely look forward to attend next year.
PS: In this blog, I'm covering major news / updates announced. YouTube video with talk on each topic can be found through GoogleDevelopers channel.
Buddy! Nice summary and I guess covers all. Looks like you had lots of fun too :-)
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