Google's APIs allow nearly complete integration of their services (Search, Maps, Earth, Blogger, etc) into your website. They went over the methods and how to authenticate, plus showcased many of the features they enable.

They also offered up sessions devoted to Android, their new open source mobile phone operating system, and OpenSocial, which allows social networks to share data and even logins so that users aren't bothered to enter the same information over and over again. I didn't attend many of these sessions as they don't pertain to much of our work at Small Box, but I did attend a session on the “social cloud” presented by Brad Fitzpatrick, founder of LiveJournal. In the session he showed what the social cloud is capable of in sharing your information across social sites as well as showcased a few tools, such as one where you can compare your friends lists to show you which friends you may have friended on one site but not on another. Additionally, he discussed the security of the open cloud and addressed concerns about privacy and keeping multiple online personalities (such as your personal and business accounts) separate. Google has since put the session online.

Overall the conference was a great experience and I hope to go again in the future, if not to the Google I/O conference, at least to San Francisco. It's a great town with a lot going on.