Google I/O Conference: Opens Google Wave to Public, Previews WebM, App Engine for Business
Each year the best and brightest developers and engineers head out to Google I/O. This is a web developer-focused conference held annually by Google to discuss web applications using Google and open web technologies. It’s been held annually at Moscone Center in San Francisco, California for the past three years.
Google Wave Open to Public
Last year, Google launched Wave. I remember it well, the scrummage for Google Wave invites. OMG!! I got one!! Exuberance! And then I logged into Google Wave to play around, and …
“Echo-chO-cO-O”
Not much going on in Google Wave at the time, however, today at Google I/O they have finally opened it up to everyone. So, you losers who didn’t get an invite are finally invited to the sucky party!!
Lars Rasmussen, co-founder of the Wave project, acknowledged that early adopters of Wave might have found that it was not ready for primetime, but said Wednesday that “now is the time to come back.” Google has “put a lot of work into basic usability things,” he said, like e-mail notifications, navigating to unread pieces of a Wave, as well as tutorials and templates for new users.
So, give it another shot those of you who had been invited… and try it out those of you who couldn’t get invited. *snickers 
Wave.Google.com. Login with your GMail address. (If you don’t have a GMail address, well, there really is no hope for you in technology. Go back to paper, pens and daily planners, cuz this interwebs thing just isn’t for you.)
Google Chrome OS Netbook
Google is expected to release a Google Chrome OS-based netbook later this year.
On that front, Google also announced WebM, an open Web media format project. As part of the effort, “we are fully open sourcing VP8, [a video codec], under a royalty-free license,” Pichai said. “Video is one of the most important forms of communication on the Web, [and] we think video should have a great, free, open alternative as well.”
Google App Engine for Business
Also unleashed at I/O, just a few days after Microsoft rolled out its cloud-based version of Office, Google is countering with its own enterprise-friendly cloud service. Google also launched App Engine for Business which is designed for enterprise customers, building the service on top of a 99.9 percent uptime service-level agreement, centralized administration tools, and security. But the pricing is set at an SMB level: $8 per user, per application, per month – capped at $1,000 per application per month. It is still in preview, and will be available later this year.
If you care to read more about it: http://code.google.com/appengine/business/
WTF is Google I/O?
I/O stands for the spirit of collaboration. Innovation and Openness. Google I/O features 80 sessions, more than 5,000 developers, and over 100 demonstrations from developers showcasing their technologies. Talk shop with engineers building the next generation of web, mobile, and enterprise applications.
Follow @googleio or Buzz for the latest updates on I/O. (official hashtag: #io2010)
Watch the Keynote:
