April 2014 Summaries

In a creative marketing initiative by Google, 300 dedicated developers uncovered a registration code for Google I/O 2014 by participating in an engaging space-themed text adventure, guided by a robot co-pilot named Icarus Odessa. This interactive hunt not only rewarded participants with the chance to attend the coveted event but also aimed to familiarize them with Google's extensive developer resources, including the Google Developers site, YouTube channels, and Udacity educational content. The initiative highlighted Google's commitment to providing developers with comprehensive tools and learning opportunities across various platforms, while also encouraging virtual participation and community interaction for those unable to attend in person.

Google Calendar API has introduced enhancements designed to conserve API quota, network bandwidth, and mobile device battery life by reducing the need for frequent polling of the server. The improvements include incremental synchronization using sync tokens, which allows users to retrieve only modified resources since their last synchronization, thus avoiding unnecessary data retrieval. Additionally, push notifications have been extended beyond event changes to include Calendar list, ACL, and Settings collections, allowing users to receive updates without repeated server requests. Pagination has also been introduced for ACL and Settings collections, adding to the existing support for Events and Calendar lists, enabling users to manage large sets of data more efficiently. These updates aim to improve the overall experience for Google Calendar developers and facilitate new integrations.

In April 2014, Google announced upcoming security enhancements to safeguard user information, emphasizing the importance of transitioning to OAuth 2.0 for applications that authenticate with Google services. These changes, set to begin in the second half of 2014, will involve increased security checks during user logins to ensure account access is restricted to authorized users. The announcement encourages developers to upgrade their applications to OAuth 2.0 to avoid additional user steps required for access and highlights that most Google APIs and standard Internet protocols are compatible with OAuth 2.0. Antonio Fuentes, a Product Manager on the Google Identity Team, underscores the company's continuous efforts to enhance online safety for its users and provide robust security features.

DevArt, an initiative by Google Creative Lab, invited developers to merge art and code, resulting in numerous innovative projects. The winning entry, "Les métamorphoses de Mr. Kalia" by French duo Cyril Diagne and Béatrice Lartigue, is an interactive installation that explores bodily metamorphosis through surrealistic changes, utilizing Chrome apps and Google Compute Engine. This project will be showcased at the Barbican's Digital Revolution exhibition in London, alongside works by renowned interactive artists Karsten Schmidt, Zach Lieberman, and the duo Varvara Guljajeva and Mar Canet. The exhibition, opening on July 3, celebrates the creativity achievable through technology, demonstrating the potential of code to inspire artistic expression.

Code School, in collaboration with the Google Maps API Team, has developed a free course titled "Exploring Google Maps for iOS" to assist iOS developers in integrating maps into their applications using the Google Maps SDK for iOS. The course encompasses a range of topics, including adding simple maps, utilizing geocoding and directions, and incorporating Street View, ultimately guiding participants toward creating a functional sample application. Learners can engage with the material through videos, sample code, and Xcode-based coding challenges. For those interested, the course is available on Code School, and additional resources can be found in the official developer documentation on the Google Maps website.

In an exploration of evolving design principles at Google, Nadya Direkova emphasizes the enduring importance of simplicity and usefulness in design, which were foundational during Google's launch and continue to guide its development philosophy. As part of this ongoing conversation, Google is hosting design-focused sessions at the Google I/O conference, where developers and designers can exchange ideas and tackle design challenges collaboratively. The initiative includes "Google Design Minutes," a video series featuring insights from Google's design experiences with products like Glass, Maps, and Search, highlighting themes such as speed, user-centric design, and simplicity. This dialogue aims to foster a community of innovation and shared learning, with opportunities for feedback and engagement through platforms like Google Moderator.

Google I/O 2014, led by Billy Rutledge, Director of Developer Relations, is set to focus on the themes of design, development, and distribution to assist developers in building and refining their apps. The event offers opportunities for attendees to discuss code, wireframes, and business strategies with industry experts, as well as receive personalized feedback on app design and distribution plans. Google I/O will also feature a streamlined session schedule with inspiring talks and self-paced Code Labs for deeper technical engagement. Beyond the technical sessions, attendees can enjoy "After Hours" activities showcasing San Francisco's local culture, including craft brews, food trucks, and indie bands. Registration is open from April 15 to April 18, with participants selected randomly, and the event will be accessible both in-person and online.

In April 2014, Google Analytics introduced significant updates to its Core Reporting API, enhancing its segmentation capabilities. These updates include the introduction of user-based segments, which allow for the analysis of user behavior across multiple sessions, and sequence-based segments, which enable segmentation based on a series of interactions. The new functionality allows for more nuanced insights, such as assessing user loyalty, regional variations in search terms, and demographic differences in conversion rates. Additionally, new operators simplify filtering and metric value limitations, while updates to segment definitions enhance usability. Google Analytics Technology Partner Padicode has leveraged these features in their funnel analysis tool, PadiTrack, which helps identify user flow bottlenecks and improve conversion rates by using the new API to report user behavior through ad-hoc funnels. This development marks a shift toward more person-centric analytics, moving beyond abstract metrics like visits, and offers opportunities for advanced reporting beyond the standard Google Analytics interface.

Dart SDK version 1.3, released by the Google Chrome team, significantly enhances the performance of asynchronous code combined with server-side I/O operations, achieving a 2x improvement that aligns it with other popular server-side runtimes. This update includes notable request-per-second improvements across three HTTP benchmarks: a 130% increase in the Hello benchmark for basic connections, nearly a 30% rise in the File benchmark for serving static content, and almost doubling the throughput in the JSON benchmark for REST app performance. Utilizing Dart on the server also allows developers to use the same language and libraries on both client and server sides, thus reducing context switching and improving code reuse. The benchmarks were conducted on a Ubuntu machine with specific hardware and Dart VM versions, and the source code for these benchmarks is available for review. The release includes resources for building web servers with Dart, and the Dartisans G+ community encourages developers to share their creations.

In the blog post, Mark McDonald from the Google GeoDevelopers Team introduces the data layer feature in the Google Maps JavaScript API, which now supports GeoJSON and declarative styling, allowing for the creation of visually appealing data visualizations on Google Maps. The example provided demonstrates how to build an interactive map infographic that combines shape outlines from a Google Maps Engine table with population data from the US Census API to create a choropleth map. This map allows users to select and display various census data variables, with the map updating to shade US regions proportionally to the census values. The map's functionality relies on loading polygons via the Maps Engine API and querying the US Census Data API, with styling achieved through a Data.StyleOptions object and interactive elements responding to mouse activity for enhanced user engagement. The blog encourages users to explore the Google Maps Engine for storing geospatial data in the cloud and directs readers to further documentation and community resources for additional guidance.