Google I/O

Conference Highlights

By Anca Gagiuc on May 24, 2013 in Technology

The annual Google conference ended a few days ago. This year the event was more developer-centric. Many were disappointed by the lack of new gadgets, but this year’s conference focused on behind-the-scenes action. News about Android, Google Chrome, Google Maps, Google Search, and Google Play took center stage.

Android

By now, 900 million activations of Android devices have occurred, and more than 48 billion apps installed from the Google Play store. Developers read these numbers as serious interest from the customer side. To aid development efforts, Google introduced a new tool – Android Studio – which allows them to work in multiple languages and for different sizes much easier than ever.

Google Chrome

Google named it “the most popular browser used in the world” and the 750 million active users worldwide agree. Last year, there were 450 million active users, much of the growth having happened on tablets and phones. And because it is a platform itself, developers use it to build apps, using all open tools offered by Chrome. More news on the operating system will be announced later this year.

Google Maps for Mobile

For the past ten years, the Google Maps product has been unmatched. Now, changes are making it more user-friendly and will help us discover new places, instead of just taking you from point A to point B.

Maps users now have Places Recommendations, meaning that they see what places have been rated and recommended by Google+ friends. The integration with Zagat has been improved to include badges and editorial reviews right in the app. Exclusive offers from different locations can now be displayed directly in the information cards, redeemable on the spot or saved within the app for later use.

Google Explore is the new feature that enables users to browse locations based on mood and activity. It looks similar to Google Now, but its purpose is to turn Maps into not just a discovery tool, but a utility one as well. Furthermore, they plan to implement a real-time dynamic rerouting feature that will help users take the right route in case of accidents on highways and roads.

Google introduced Landmarks, which tracks the places a user frequents and creates landmarks within the area. The most prominent locations will become frequented hangouts and favorite places. Maps will also use the Google photos on mobile, and a tablet-optimized version of the Maps app will be offered to users.

Google Search

The End of Search As We Know It, a provocative talk from Google director of search Amit Singhal, forecast a shift toward highly personalized search. Answer, converse and anticipate becomes the company credo. The search engine could become a responsive listener on Chrome and Chrome OS. With the user’s request, which would initiate with the phrase “OK, Google,” the browser will ultimately talk back and deliver highly personalized results.

This feature rids of the need to push buttons, allowing to just say: “OK, Google,” activating voice recognition capability, and get answers to all questions. The plan is for Google to anticipate the next question, and intuitively search not just the greater resources of the internet to answer questions, but your personal web browsing history, email, chat logs and other available data sources. While traditional search relied on keywords, the Google’s core future mission will be to deliver the right information by interpreting context.

Google Play

Besides updates to the store’s visual appearance, Google Play now gives suggestions based on personal preferences chosen by Google’s algorithms. The apps designed for tablets will be highlighted, meeting a frequent user request.

Google Play for Education will be launched this fall, which is a curated version of the Play store specifically for schools and other educational institutions. Because a carefully chosen group of editors will select the apps, no unfavorable ones will pass through.

Google+

Although many thought Google would give up on its social network, the company announced 41 new features, among them a new look, automatic hashtags, and a new Hangouts app. All these could make Google+ a stronger competitor with Facebook.

The multi-column stream with cards that can be flipped over to find related content seems such a small thing compared to the auto-hastag feature. This update will tag your posts with relevant hashtags, regardless if you add a description to your post or not. The I/O conference demo had a photo of the Eiffel Tower that was auto-tagged as #eiffeltower due to landmark recognition and metadata. This feature can be turned off and tags can be deleted.

Photo enthusiasts will be happy to see that Google integrated Nik’s professional photo software suite, with the following features:

Auto Awesome – automatically creates a GIF with photos from your library;

Auto Backup – every photo you take with your mobile is automatically backed up as you shot it;

Auto Highlight – tags duplicates, blurry photos, poor exposure, helping you to find your best ones;

Auto Enhance – uses a filter that improves brightness, saturation, contrast, etc. on photos.

Pure Android Galaxy S4

A bit of hardware talk was part of the big event. A version of Samsung Electronics Cp.’s Galaxy S4 will be on the market starting June 26. This phone will run a pure version of Android, made and distributed entirely by Google. The phone will be unlocked and the price will reflect that since no carrier will subsidize it – $649 opposed to the usual $200 with a two year contract. All Android updates will reach this version, without carriers to block them from getting to locked phones.

Google Glass was made somewhat conspicuous through its absence at the event, but 8,000 of the groundbreaking wearable computers are being distributed this month and whatever updates or second generation version of the device is to come will be informed by their use.

What are your reactions to the latest Google updates and offerings? Are you excited about any of the new development features, or are you hanging out by the mailbox, hoping a Google Glass will somehow come your way?