Google Empowers Web Developers at Google I/O

Google opened its annual developer conference, Google I/O, in San Francisco on May 27 with a focus on the maturity of the Web platform for creating rich, compelling enterprise and mobile applications.

Indeed, Google officials highlighted the new functionality in HTML 5 as a key building block for the future of the Web platform that also is enabling developers to build better applications now. Google said that HTML 5 features -- from graphics and location to local storage and background processing -- are enabling developers to build uniquely powerful Web applications.

Meanwhile, at the Google I/O event, Google announced three primary advancements and is showing progress on a host of other projects the company is working on.

Google announced Google Web Elements, a new product that provides an easy way to incorporate Google products onto a Website or blog, the company said. This includes content such as Maps, News and YouTube videos, as well as social comments functionality by Google Friend Connect. Already, Google has 4 billion API calls a day. Google Web Elements makes it even easier to add functionality to sites by choosing optional customizations and copying and pasting a few lines of code.

Google also announced that it is launching the general availability of Java language support in Google App Engine. This provides developers with an end-to-end Java language solution for building Asynchronous JavaScript and XML (AJAX) Web applications. An early look at Java language support in App Engine was released to a limited number of developers at Google's April 7 Campfire One developer event, and in the last two months more than 10,000 Java language applications have been deployed on the platform. More than 80,000 applications have been built on App Engine since it was launched in April 2008, Google officials said.

In addition, Google also announced the second phase of its Android Developer Challenge, a Google-funded initiative to reward developers for building innovative and useful applications for the Android mobile platform. For Android Developer Challenge 2 (ADC 2), Google will let users of Android-powered phones participate in the judging process through the use of an on-phone judging application. Awards will be presented to the top applications, up to a quarter of a million dollars for the overall winner, which will be announced in November 2009. More information on ADC 2 can be found at http://code.google.com/android/adc/.

"Bet on the Web," said Vic Gundotra, vice president of developer products at Google, in a statement. "Its rate of innovation has dramatically accelerated over the past 12 months, giving rise to an open Web platform that's fundamentally more capable and more sophisticated than even a year ago. The combination of HTML 5, a vibrant developer community, and the pervasiveness of modern Web browsers is delivering a programming model and an end-user experience that will surprise and delight people."

Google I/O 2009 is being held May 27 and 28 at the Moscone Center in San Francisco, and is expected to draw more than 3,000 developers from more than 45 countries, the company said. The conference opened with a keynote from Google CEO Eric Schmidt and Gundotra. Over the course of two days, the event will include more than 80 technical sessions, breakouts, fireside chats and other opportunities to exchange ideas with subject-matter experts from Google and partner companies. More than 130 speakers from more than 40 companies will be featured at the event.

Google I/O will include a mix of practical, hands-on advice for building Web apps, as well as opportunities to learn about and discuss emerging trends. Sessions will cover tools developed both inside and outside of Google, and topic areas will include Android and Mobile; Chrome, App Engine, Google Web Toolkit, Maps and Geo, YouTube, OpenSocial, and AJAX.

Moreover, new this year will be the "Developer Sandbox" sessions, in which more than 30 members of the developer community will showcase applications they've built and share their experiences in working with the latest Web and mobile technologies.