{"id":401,"date":"2018-06-12T16:55:34","date_gmt":"2018-06-12T14:55:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/companies.mybroadband.co.za\/bbd\/?p=401"},"modified":"2023-09-29T08:17:07","modified_gmt":"2023-09-29T06:17:07","slug":"google-i-o-as-told-by-a-developer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/companies.mybroadband.co.za\/bbd\/2018\/06\/12\/google-i-o-as-told-by-a-developer\/","title":{"rendered":"Google I\/O: as told by a developer"},"content":{"rendered":"

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A few weeks after Google\u2019s annual developer conference, most of us have seen the fascinating-yet-frightening videos of Google Assistant phoning a restaurant<\/a><\/strong> to make a reservation.<\/p>\n

Mike Geyser \u2014 BBD R&D lead, Google Developers Expert in Web Technologies and all-round JavaScript enthusiast \u2014 attended Google I\/O 2018 and shared his mind-blowing experience. (Spoiler alert: you don\u2019t have to channel your inner Will Smith while rewatching \u2018I, Robot\u2019 to prepare for the rise of the machines just yet!)<\/p>\n

What\u2019s the 411 on Google I\/O?<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Google I\/O (or simply I\/O) is one of Google\u2019s huge developer conferences, which brings together developers from all over the globe and gives them a first look at Google\u2019s latest developer products and platforms. Basically, it\u2019s just a big festival for all things Google!<\/p>\n

Interesting things learned<\/strong><\/h3>\n

From a consumer-facing perspective, they showed off Google Duplex, whereby Google\u2019s AI voice-generated assistant makes phone calls on your behalf, realistically \u201cfaking\u201d human interaction. I don\u2019t think it\u2019s fully baked yet, but certainly hints at where we\u2019re heading in the future. It definitely raised some interesting ethical questions about the nature of AI.<\/p>\n

From a developer perspective, and one of the main reasons I went, I\/O addressed a few interesting topics. These included the Polymer 3.0 launch, which represented simple but important steps forward for the Polymer Project (and the web platform as a whole). There were a whole bunch of talks on Progressive Web Apps (PWA), including new tooling, and interesting and revealing data on trends with PWA. Finally, there was a LOT on machine learning!<\/p>\n

Can you give a quick machine learning update?<\/strong><\/h3>\n

They announced ML Kit, which basically cuts across a whole bunch of their software offerings on Android and web. This is to try and make it easier to access common machine learning data tasks, such as image and speech recognition, among other things. Essentially, it becomes a lot easier to do very sophisticated work without needing a PhD in machine learning.<\/p>\n

As another example, they showed off a JavaScript framework called Guess.js, that can use your Google Analytics data from your website to optimise the loading experience. A practical use case for machine learning, to make your site faster for users.<\/p>\n

All the talks were live-streamed and are available online. Which were some of your favourites?<\/strong><\/h3>\n

I actually have three that I would recommend:<\/p>\n

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      1. The state of the web union<\/strong><\/a>. It was very insightful to see how things fit together on the web.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n