Google I/O: Now online, starting with all things Client
The Google Client Team had an exciting and inspiring two days last week at
Google I/O. We had the opportunity to talk to developers and have insightful conversations on
what we're doing in the realm of HTML 5, Chrome, V8, Native Client, and 3D graphics on the
web.
Today we're excited to reflect on these conversations at I/O, and
kick off a series of videos and presentations from Google I/O. Starting with the Client track
today,
session videos and presentations from I/O will
be posted online over the course of the next seven days and free to the world, on the
Google I/O
website.
Chrome: Extensions, Internals, V8 and
moreAaron Boodman gave a great talk on
creating extensions for Chrome, and built
several extensions live during his talk. I think this reflects our commitment to make it easy
to build extensions, and I hope that developers -- not only those in the room, but those
around the world who watch the recorded video of Aaron's talk -- will be inspired to create
great extensions.
Darin Fisher delved into
Chrome internals, managing to cover large swaths of Chrome code,
philosophy, and lore without breaking a sweat. Darin's talk is a great way for developers to
see that Chrome is more than just a fast browser with a slick UI -- we believe that developers
at I/O came away realizing that there is a lot going on behind the scenes that sets Chrome
apart.
Mads Ager talked about
V8, walking attendees through the reason Google decided to build a new
JavaScript engine, how some of the internals of V8 work including hidden classes, inline
caching and garbage collection, and recent improvements made to further speed up JavaScript
execution in V8. We were glad to present a thought-provoking session for developers, as
attendees left the session with impressed and contemplative looks on their faces.
HTML5, Native Client, O3D and moving the web forwardMatt Papakipos, in addition to making an appearance in Wednesday's
keynote, gave
a
great talk on where Chrome is, with respect to HTML5 and the
open web platform. He explored what the platform means for developers, how they can use it, as
well as the vision going forward. Matt delivered this talk to a packed room - attendees were
spilling out to the aisles and doorways in our largest session room at the Moscone Convention
Center in San Francisco. We're thrilled and humbled that developers are as excited as we are
about the web platform and where we are taking it.
At the
session on Native Client, Brad Chen got
developers excited about the possibility of running native code as part of their web
applications. Brad gave a comprehensive low-down on how Native Client works, and how it can be
used to further strengthen the platform and move the web forward.
Vangelis Kokkevis and Gregg Tavares gave a talk on
bringing 3D graphics to the web via O3D.
Vangelis started the presentation with an overview of the O3D project and its goals and
highlighted some its most significant features. Gregg then took over and demonstrated how, in
a few simple steps, one can go from a blank HTML page to the beginnings of an entertaining
mini-game with only a handfull of calls to the O3D API.
In addition,
Henry Bridge led a
panel with developers from Large Animal and Crazy Pixel, sharing
insights about developing 3D graphics applications using O3D and getting developers excited
about 3D on the web. You can also view sandbox video interviews with these two developers
(
Large Animal,
Crazy
Pixel) in the Developer Sandbox section, along with
many other
developers.
Browsers and standards
developmentTo give developers more insight into how
standards development and implementation in browsers work, we put together a
panel with Jonas Sicking from Mozilla, Charles McCathieNevile from
Opera, and myself, moderated by Mike Schroepfer (formerly of Mozilla now at Facebook). At this
session, we talked more about the vision advanced by various browsers, and deliberated
questions on where the browsers and the web are going.
Beyond the
sessions, I/O provided the Client team the opportunity to interact with developers through
Fireside Chats, where developers freely asked a broad range of questions. We also staffed
Chrome Office Hours, where I/O attendees could stop by with their burning questions about the
browser and chat with the team. We got developers excited about
Chrome extensions,
HTML5,
<video>,
O3D and more at the the Client developer sandbox pod.
All in all, we're thrilled to have spent two days with developers in
conversation about Chrome, the web platform, and a shared future that we are all working so
hard to create. We're excited to now bring these conversations to a larger community of
developers with our
I/O session videos and
presentations. If you like, drop us comments through the Google Friend Connect
gadget we have enabled on the session web pages - we'd be delighted to hear from you.
By Ian Fette,
Chrome Team
