The 6th Annual Google i/o conference was attended by 6,000 people and its keynote was watched on youtube by 1mln people!  40,000 people were watching  it at viewing parties, and one of them with 300+ people took place at Google I/O Extended at Google Los Angeles Venice office. The event was free of charge.

There were many interesting updates and new technology uncovered in music, video, eCommerce, etc.

Google + released 41 new features, and more importantly new user friendly design with related hashtags and more recommendation when you flip the card. Image analysis goes deeper and you can slide to other content.

Pictures. Your darkroom is now a data center. New features: Cloud band photo, Google picks the best pics, Add a landmark recognition, Smile recognition, Bigger pics on G+, Enhancing, Backup, Highlight, Enhance, Awesome, Collage, Make them all smile

Search
The end of search as we know it.
You ask computer and it will answer. Answer, converse and anticipate. Knowledge graphs, more languages, even more answers.
Conversational search and hot wording are coming to Chrome  plus voice reminders. (World brain is almost here!)

Maps
50 countries street views, even Great Barrier Reef. Local data, base maps, imagery, street view
3D more exploration and ratings from my reviews, users’, friends’ and Zagat’s. Hence maps and offers, directions and navigation, with traffic incident alerts maps will gives you another route. Explore and discover!

Future of Maps
Create your own map with immersive imagery. All results are labeled on the map. Filter whats friends rated, their pics and descriptions, highlight all important places to me. Fly into a new restaurant with real 3D images inside. When you click on the street it will highlight and label all streets where to go to. Just click, the map is the user interface. Also 3D view on the browser and pics from user uploaded photos. Integrated Google Earth and crowd sourcing.

Larry Page spoke at the end of the keynote. He said that the list of things to do is longer every day. There are many opportunities and we are just scratching the surface of what is possible. Technology’s purpose is to free humans to do things we love (instead of farming and hunting in the past) and make us happiest at life. Tech is a tool. It is about problem solving and giving.
It was my first time at the Google Venice office, and it was impressive. There were people wearing Google glass. There were 3 tracks and more than 15 sessions to attend. Free food and drinks (including Kogi Korean food truck), raffles and gifts (Google T-shirt, $10 Google play card and Andru, all Android phones charger in the shape of Android), and great people to connect with! Check out new movie “The Internship” about Google coming out on June 7, 2013.