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Google I/O 2023

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Re: Google I/O 2023

#41

Post by devjab »

m0zzie wrote: post #33
danwee wrote: post #2

I was very enthusiastic about Google I/O in the past (around the year 2010). Full of nice tech talks; I learned a lot. These years, I couldn't care less. It's all business talk. I guess developers are not the target audience anymore (and for newcomers, perhaps the "I/O" may be misleading).

Heh, yours and other comments here disparaging I/O as "business" or "corporate" talk these days come across as quite ignorant - and I don't mean this in a nasty way, more in a literal way. It seems perhaps you're missing the fact there are many different styles of talks for many audiences. At every I/O there is a "keynote" and a "developer keynote", and similarly there are business / product talks and developer-focus…

> live in a world where they have no choice but to use Google SDKs and services

Which world is this? I’m genuinely interested not trying to be rude.

Re: Google I/O 2023

#42

Post by WhereIsTheTruth »

danwee wrote: post #2

I was very enthusiastic about Google I/O in the past (around the year 2010). Full of nice tech talks; I learned a lot. These years, I couldn't care less. It's all business talk. I guess developers are not the target audience anymore (and for newcomers, perhaps the "I/O" may be misleading).

Same here, I lost interest

Re: Google I/O 2023

#43

Post by clnq »

vesinisa wrote: post #35
clnq wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Around 2013 is when I/Os became less about showing technological progress and more about corporate talk. Examples of I/O topics before 2013: Android, Maps API, App Engine (cloud), Chrome, AJAX for their APIs, real-time collaboration/Wave, Google TV (early predecessor to Android TV), Chromebooks, Chrome Web Store, Google Drive, Google Docs, Google Glass, Gmail updates, Google+, YouTube updates. Most I/O topics after 2…

Almost all of the topics you listed have sessions in this year's Google I/O. There are 35 different sessions tagged "Android" alone: https://io.google/2023/program/?q=android There might be no sessions for stuff like how to use web APIs because these are already mature and well-documented technologies. I/O is about showcasing new stuff after all.

I don't know, it seems to me that recently in I/O, discussions have primarily focused on mature core products, indicating a shift towards iteration rather than invention. I would say the conference definitely showcases less "new stuff" or "new stuff" of smaller scope. Both I/O and Google now seem to prioritize safe, low-risk technologies from a business standpoint. And that just doesn't fill up an entire conference without some business speak padding.

To my mind, the turning point towards this new, less fun and more corporate Google and I/O was around 2013. I think that's when they started thinking about shaping the company into Alphabet with Google as a subsidiary as well. Famously they removed "don't be evil" as the motto and expanded into hardware a lot soon after 2013, too. It was a time of wholistic change at Google.

Re: Google I/O 2023

#44

Post by mooreds »

danwee wrote: post #2

I was very enthusiastic about Google I/O in the past (around the year 2010). Full of nice tech talks; I learned a lot. These years, I couldn't care less. It's all business talk. I guess developers are not the target audience anymore (and for newcomers, perhaps the "I/O" may be misleading).

It wasn't always tech talks. I remember going to Google I/O in 2008 and sitting in a bean bag chair about 30 feet from "Flight of The Conchords", who were performing live. Fun times.

Ah, look, I blogged about it: https://www.mooreds.com/wordpress/archives/475

Re: Google I/O 2023

#46

Post by m0zzie »

echelon wrote: post #39
m0zzie wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Heh, yours and other comments here disparaging I/O as "business" or "corporate" talk these days come across as quite ignorant - and I don't mean this in a nasty way, more in a literal way. It seems perhaps you're missing the fact there are many different styles of talks for many audiences. At every I/O there is a "keynote" and a "developer keynote", and similarly there are business / product talks and developer-focus…

Google can pretend they're not IBM, but that doesn't make it true. Google no longer innovates or launches products of note. They throw ideas at the wall, like spaghetti, and hope things stick. Perverse incentives create competing products, dead end projects, and invariably everything created winds up getting cancelled. Google got drunk off of easy search ad revenue. Their founding leadership went off to do zeppelins…

Did you mean to reply to a different comment? I'm not sure what relevance this has to my comment which you're replying to?

Re: Google I/O 2023

#47

Post by [deleted] »

m0zzie wrote: post #46
echelon wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Google can pretend they're not IBM, but that doesn't make it true. Google no longer innovates or launches products of note. They throw ideas at the wall, like spaghetti, and hope things stick. Perverse incentives create competing products, dead end projects, and invariably everything created winds up getting cancelled. Google got drunk off of easy search ad revenue. Their founding leadership went off to do zeppelins…

Did you mean to reply to a different comment? I'm not sure what relevance this has to my comment which you're replying to?

[deleted]

Re: Google I/O 2023

#48

Post by flakiness »

Google now has a separate conference for Cloud ("Next") and even for Android there are separate conferences (like "Dev Summit" or "Bootcamp"). These dilute the I/O's excitement.

But this phenomenon exemplifies the incoherent nature of Google's dev story.

Re: Google I/O 2023

#49

Post by gjvc »

clnq wrote: post #18
jefftk wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When was that? (I expect whatever year you give other people will say it was already just corporate talk before then)

Around 2013 is when I/Os became less about showing technological progress and more about corporate talk. Examples of I/O topics before 2013: Android, Maps API, App Engine (cloud), Chrome, AJAX for their APIs, real-time collaboration/Wave, Google TV (early predecessor to Android TV), Chromebooks, Chrome Web Store, Google Drive, Google Docs, Google Glass, Gmail updates, Google+, YouTube updates. Most I/O topics after 2…

RIP Google Wave, we hardly knew ya.

Re: Google I/O 2023

#50

Post by m0zzie »

devjab wrote: post #41
m0zzie wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Heh, yours and other comments here disparaging I/O as "business" or "corporate" talk these days come across as quite ignorant - and I don't mean this in a nasty way, more in a literal way. It seems perhaps you're missing the fact there are many different styles of talks for many audiences. At every I/O there is a "keynote" and a "developer keynote", and similarly there are business / product talks and developer-focus…

> live in a world where they have no choice but to use Google SDKs and services Which world is this? I’m genuinely interested not trying to be rude.

No problem! My team is a small subset of engineers in a 10yo+ startup, and the organisation chose to go all in on many Google services long before any of us joined the company. I have my issues with Google and some of their services but the GP stands out as an odd comment to me because it's at odds with my own experience of keeping up with I/O talks.
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