On May 17, fans tuned in to watch the keynote address at Google I/O, the company's annual developer's conference. To read about all of today's Google announcements, check out CNET's coverage of Google I/O 2017.
Visual Responses will send information to a relevant device for display, such as directions to your phone or a calendar to your Chromecast for display on your TV.
The Google Home now will have "proactive assistance," otherwise known as push notifications, hands-free free calling (outgoing only, to start), Spotify integration (as well as SoundCloud and Deezer) and Bluetooth support. It can launch HBO Now as well.
Combining use of GPS and the intelligent learning of Google Lens enables you to get quick information like restaurant reviews just by pointing your phone's camera at the options you see nearby on the street.
Google Photos got some major attention too. With machine learning and facial recognition working to classify all the photos you take, they aim to increase the likelihood of sharing the photos you take with those who might be in them.
You can even share a photo feed with your spouse or family, synchronizing all, some, or just new photos taken on your phone with certain people in them. This streamlines sharing, but could be irritating if you don't particularly want to see every food or cat photo your spouse takes.
Google pulled up all the photos it recognized as containing the people in question, and then decided which ones would be best in the book. It even did a layout for him.
Google is launching a photo book service, too. Tell Google what you want the subject of your book to be. In this case, the presenter used a Mother's Day book of photos of his wife and children as an example.
The company announced several new efforts. Google.ai is a spinoff division to encompass learning systems, research tools and applied AI to inform all of its work.
Google Lens is a new recognition engine that enables intelligent mixed reality -- performing text and object recognition and feeding it into other apps to act upon, such as using the camera to view your router serial numbers and automatically provide related links.
Same thing with speech recognition. The more we use Google Assistant, the better it gets at distinguishing our individual voices and deciphering our speech, even in noisy environments.
Google wants to push you to share more, adding Suggested Sharing to Google Photos to remind you to share and recommend who to share with, plus a feed of shared images.
It doesn't require a phone or computer, but will be a standalone wireless VR headset with built-in positional tracking. We'll see devices later this year.
