Notes from Google VP Jeff Huber from Google Developer Day

A few notes I grabbed while attending Google's Developer Day a couple of weeks ago... VP Engineering, Jeff Huber kicked things off to more than 1,500 attendees/developers of Google Developer Day in San Jose, CA. Those electing not to make the trek to the “Valley” were also treated to a live broadcast which was estimated to have been viewed by more than 5,000 online attendees – note: the event is archived online and available via YouTube. We were reminded by Huber that in typical Google fashion the event was totally free and included free food as well (clap). This, as many of you know, was the first google Developer Day, although last year Google did host an event billed as Geo-Developer Day (I was fortunate enough to have been there also).

Remembering one year ago - Recall it was way back in 2005 when the Google maps API really kicked things off. It brought to the end user a new way of interacting with the web. The Google maps developer crew reverse engineered the API and created what was known as mashups. Remember the housingmaps mashup which enabled visualizing the location of available properties for rent? This first mashup is what really sent the developer team thinking and eventually coming up with the idea of throwing out an API for the developer world to take advantage of. Fast-forward to 2006 when we saw the AJAX search API and the emergence of the gdata API - exposing APIs as web services. 2007 will see several new products.

Some highlights from Huber’s introduction:

- Now after one year there are 10x more APIs to discuss

- there are 25 times the number of developers to reach via the developer event (hence the need to scramble with a larger venue at the last minute)

- The new model of application development includes open source, standards, mashups, and advertising

- Developers are now creating apps in a 10th of the time that was required back in the day!

Photos from Google Developer Day