Google IO - Updates Trickling Down

More Wood Behind Fewer Arrows

The IO is long over as I write this article, but as I look at my Google services, Drive, Gmail, etc; I cannot help but be excited for all of the attention they are paying to their platforms. There was a general sense that  the software titan is refocusing it's assets to create a consistent experience across the board.

Google Drive Changes

Fifteen Gigabytes for each user across their various accounts means that Google is now the leader of free storage crushing Box's 5 Gig limit and appealing to our sense of utility. After all, who uses 10 gigabytes of space on their Gmail account? I believe the new limit also applies to Google App engine which is something to keep in mind for users that are toying around with AE.

Geo-Fencing

One of the big changes for developers is the opening up of the Geo-Fencing API. This allows apps to interact with their users in the context of location like never before. As these tools become more and more accessible they will also yield better results! This technology is going to shine with the advancement of their new low power location systems. I haven't seen any case studies yet but I am sure they are coming through soon.

Hangouts

Did you scramble to play with the new Hangouts app after the keynote? I know I did! I was pleased with the unification of chat across all services and the sleek UI changes. There will definitely be some problems activating a community around the text chatting portion of Hangouts over the more open XMPP platforms that plug into Pidgin and Adium. My thought is that Google chrome should install Hangouts Chat by default - then Google will in essence gain the same user acquisition strategy as Facebook - "the general idea being, you are already here, why not chat?". Implementation would have to be carefully managed to keep the browser experience as clean as possible, but just speaking for myself - I have been enjoying the chrome Hangouts app as is.

Search

The search titan is striving to make the computer as cool as it is in classic Star Trek episodes. Chrome's Google Now feature is being updated, and the engine is being geared towards conversational searches through dictation and memory rather than the classic typing input. No word on when exactly the changes are going through, but I am certain we will be chatting up Google in the next weeks.