This year’s Google I/O developer conference kicked off a few hours ago, and during the opening keynote, the tech giant let loose quite a handful of announcements. Among these are a handful of new services, updates to its stable of products, and previews to upcoming technologies they are currently developing. Here is a quick rundown of the announcements that may open up opportunities for those of us in the social media marketing field.

Mobile

Google is a huge proponent of advancing the development of mobile tech development, boasting of a large stake in the industry with their Android platform, continuously progressing technologies, and over 400 million devices activated running their mobile OS.

Companies relying on mobile technologies (mobile marketing, mobile sites, app development, etc) as part of their social media marketing strategies should definitely look into adopting these new updates and services to enrich their followers’ experience with their brand.

• Android Jelly Bean
  Google has already announced the release of the next version of its mobile operating system: Jelly Bean. Slated for a July release, this new version was developed with better input response, a new search interface, more dynamic notifications, and smoother graphics, among many other nifty new tricks. In addition to these, Jelly Bean also improves on the homescreen, its in-built camera app, and Google Beam which lets you send photos and videos from one phone to another.
• Nexus 7
  While Google has been widely supportive of the tablet boom and even dedicated their Android Honeycomb platform for tablets, they have yet to actually release their own.

  The newly announced Nexus 7 tablet remedies that. It’s a pretty powerful 340-gram device, powered by a quadcore processor and fronted by a seven-inch 1280×800 HD display. It’ll come preloaded with Jelly Bean, the Android-geared Chrome browser, and a deep integration with Google Play Store for multimedia purchases. The company will start shipping out in mid-July at $199.

• Google Plus for Tablets
  Along with the announcement of Nexus 7 comes the release of the official Google Plus app for tablets. However, it won’t be a mere port-over from the iOS and Android phone versions of the app; instead, it’s been optimized for a bigger screen and better usage on the tablet platform. Aside from larger, crisper graphics and easily tappable actions, it’ll also feature a content stream based on popularity, type and orientation, a modified interface for using Hangout.

Under the Hood Updates

Google I/O is a developer conference, pulling massive crowds of Web and mobile developers from all over. Here, attendees learn from Google engineers and tech specialists about the latest technologies the company has to offer, and the new solutions, best practices and techniques they can be shaped for better integration.

The following are the recently announced new tweaks and updates to some of the Google products companies are using to simplify their work processes, and can help brands’ online presence thrive.

• Google App Engine 1.7.0
  By developing Web apps, brands can expand their marketing chops and provide their demographic with an immersive experience. Google’s own cloud-based Web dev platform, Google App Engine new version comes packed with new features like a new service for improving page speeds, application code limits up to 1GB per app, an experimental SDK for Windows, and a new App engine cluster in Europe for better latency within that region.
• Google Drive SDK v2.0
  Google Drive supports third party apps within its cloud ecosystem. And many have already developed their own to extend the services’ capabilities. Aside from the growing crop of new apps, the second update to Google Drive’s SDK will provide an easier way to share files, convert between formats, manage revisions, and offers full support for mobile users.
• New YouTube APIs
  YouTube’s API also received some much needed updates. For starters, there’s a significant focus on mobile consumption as they introduce the YouTube Android Player API for better efficient delivery of videos to mobile devices. They also added YouTube Direct Lite as an easier way of engaging with followers through crowdsourced content.

Tags: Google, internet marketing, online marketing, social media marketing, Tech