Google’s annual Input/Output developer conference kicked off on May 19th. Over 5,000 people were in attendance to hear the latest and greatest technologies stemming from the google laboratories. There were a number of disclosures and releases made by google which could potentially pave the way we interact with media for years to come. I’d like to share with you the most note-worthy announcements as they may have an impact on your media delivery.

Android 2.2 “Froyo” Changes

The hottest thing in the mobile market right now is Android. Android phones have taken over market share, surpassing the Apple IPhone. Google stated that they are activating over 100,000 Android devices a day. It’s easy to overlook the fact that Android has only been on the market for 18 months. On to the improvements in version 2.2…

• Built-in flash support with the brand new release of Flash Player 10.1. This version has been heavily optimized for mobile phones and the performance gains are supposedly tremendous over the previous version.
• Music now syncs to your PC using Wi-Fi or 3G instead of docking.
• The Android Marketplace will now have a music app, allowing you to sync and play your music wherever you go.
• Google has completely revamped their advertisement display types for mobile phones. This includes support for full-screen trailers, external advertisements through DoubleClick, rich media, and text ads.
• Device tethering will allow your laptop to piggyback off the phone’s 3G data connection. Essentially, this will allow your phone to act as a wireless router, giving you the capability to log in to the internet wherever you may be.
• Google announced the release of a web based Android Market, enabling users to download applications and music online. Using “the powers of the internet”, Google will push the downloads directly to your phone in real-time.
• Improved support for Microsoft Exchange-based services, such as email and calendars, was announced.
• Best of all, Froyo is lightning fast and is the hands down winner when compared to earlier versions, the IPhone, and the IPad.

For more information regarding updates, please read this article.

Google TV

Google is working very closely with Sony and Logitech to try and create a brand new web television experience. It can all be summed up in this short 2 minute video entitled “Introducing Google TV.”

HTML5

Google focused heavily on HTML5 and the future of HTML5 web applications. If you are unfamiliar with HTML5, I strongly recommend you take the time to skim over this Wikipedia entry. They demonstrated a number of very graphically intensive and feature rich applications developed using the latest of HTML5 technologies. Examples included a full-blown web application from TweetDeck and a digital version of ESPN The Magazine. The main setback for HTML5 is the sheer number of individuals still browsing the internet with an outdated browser. I am willing to go out on a limb and say the absolute best thing you can do to help the future of the internet is to upgrade your browser.

Release of the VP8 video codec

Google has released the VP8 video codec (homepage) royalty free as a direct competitor to the current industry standard H.264 codec. Along with this release, Google announced that YouTube is beginning the process of converting all of their videos to the new VP8 codec. This is great news as this codec can (and will) be readily used by all major browsers.

Google Font Directory and API

The Google Font Directory will house a number of open sourced, high quality fonts for you to integrate into your websites using the Google Font API. The API is extremely beneficial for backwards compatibility with older browsers.

Google Wave Opened to the Masses

There was a lot of hype over Google Wave when it was first announced at last years Google I/O conference. Unfortunately for us, it was released as a private beta with limited access. Beyond that, it was quite cumbersome to use and was not well integrated with GMail. All of this has since changed. Google Wave is now open for everybody and hopefully it has some positive impact on the way we collaborate.

You can sign up for Google Wave at http://wave.google.com. It is also possible for Google Apps administrators to enable it for their domains. Enable Wave for your domain gives you the ability to work as a team. It might very well be worth checking out, even if you decide to do it on a small scale. Below is a quick introduction to Google Wave.

Google Chrome Web Store

The Chrome Web Store is, to paraphrase, an open marketplace for web apps that help people find the best applications across the internet. These web apps can integrate into Chrome by using advanced features that require permission: local storage, user’s location, and notifications. Once installed, a web app gets a big icon in Google Chrome’s app launcher area, as well as some integration with the host OS. From a development standpoint, it seems as though Google is moving one step closer to a WebOS.