Google DevFest 2011 in Jakarta was the last of the Southeast Asia series of events, held two days ago at the JW Marriott Hotel in Indonesia’s capital.
Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) accepted around 300 to 400 Google technology users, enthusiasts and of course, developers. It promised to be a full day of geek pleasure, and it was indeed a satisfying one, for this blogger included.
Google talked about the Google+ platform, Android, HTML5, Google Apps (APIs, new features, best practices), OAuth and OpenID, and Google Cloud. I will write most of the summary of the Devfest that aren’t full of codes, most of the codes can be find at Google Developers and Google Code.
G+ Gets Brand/Business Pages
So the event started off with the ever increasing use of the Google+ platform. ‘+1’ – or some might say Google’s version of Facebook Like – is really affecting the search results and works as a recommendation tool now. For example, you searched for a specific keyword, and you are clueless as to what link to click – but now under every link, Google has added a recommendation by your friends on Google+, or you yourself can also +1 a link or a search result. Google+ just launched Google+ Pages for brands and start-ups last week. I
t’s a must-have thing if you wish to improve your search results and gain more exposure. From now on, you can see +1 displayed on display ads, mobile, websites, and search results. For authors or bloggers, you can also associate your content with your Google profile now. For early adopters who are on Google+, connect with us here.
Android Pushes Social and NFC
The DevFest then moved onto Google’s mobile OS, Android, which hasn’t quite taken off in Indonesia as much as it has in, say, China, or the EU. And so the Google crew put emphasis on the advantages of Android, such as homescreen widgets and slick notifications where apps can push info to the top menu bar without needing to access the app itself.
Android also has integrated social APIs now that can sync user profiles between social media accounts so you can have an address book where you can store your friends’ social media accounts and their high resolution picture as their profile pictures.
They also introduced Android Beam – an upcoming feature in Android 4.0 ‘Ice Cream Sandwich’ where two Android mobile phones can push files or info through NFC (presuming the phone has that chip in it), which is really an interesting and practical way to use NFC.
HTML5 and Chrome
On the bleeding edge of HTML5, Google basically blew our minds at the DevFest with how they use HTML5 to make such beautiful web apps – and Chrome looks to be pushing forward how people can access those beautiful sites without any hassle and lag (though, to be fair, Firefox supports HTML5 really well too). Google also mentioned that if we really look at it, web browsers, starting from 2008, are iterating more quickly and releasing new versions even faster now. The Chrome team is releasing its new version of the super-beta channel ‘Chromium’ every six weeks!
Even though RIM (NASDAQ:RIMM) says that its leading in terms of smartphone marketshare in Indonesia, Android is turning out to be the leading OS on some cheaper phones and that can be a real threat if Google is putting serious effort to build their developer community here.
Although the once rumoured office is definitely out of the way for now, Google plans to hold more events to garner more developers to develop for Android, like one of the successful award-winning Android game developers, NightSpade. Google also promised to enable developers to sell in the Android Market instead of just being able to buy apps in the country – well, we are definitely waiting for that day!
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