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Google’s chairman and CEO Eric Schmidt spoke at the International Keynote.  He talked of how technology has evolved so fast that it changes the human factors.  He talked of cloud computing and why it’s so important for today!  Small mind like mine sometimes dislikes the idea of cloud computing for its pervasiveness in the idea of the strongest point also is the weakest point when it comes down to how secure a cloud computing network can be.

Eric Schmidt suggested in his presentation that cloud computing and the smart phones and the collective efforts of the instructions that the people feed the computers make it possible for instantaneous information to be acquired at anytime and at anywhere.  As the near future appears closer on our car’s rear view mirror, information can be searched in automation mode without the human interventions; it makes the possibility of discovering new things at a constant rate possible.  Imagine one wants to travel to Germany, but even before one jumps onto an airplane to fly to Germany, all the required information about Germany has been collected and is awaited for one to skim through if needed be in one’s smart phones, computers, laptops, TVs, tablets, and other not yet made available devices. Information can also be made available instantaneously at all time base on one’s personality and skills and interests.

The power of cloud computing is amazing indeed, because one doesn’t own a super computer, doesn’t have to pay the cost to run a super computer, and yet one can have a super computer (not one but as many as possible) cranks its power to feed one’s desires.  The popularity of cloud computing is paying the bills for the cloud computational activities.  Nonetheless, I think it’s a pervasive technology as it has a potential in doing great harm to anyone who wish their privacy stays closely guard.  It’s funny how the web is representing the decentralization, and yet because of it we now want something that is centric such as cloud computing.  We can say the web of cloud networks represent the big picture such as the web/Internet.  Greater harm is coming from when so much information store on the insecure cloud networks!  Nonetheless, the notion of its is only a point to make but not a turn away gesture as we all know what need to be fixed can always be fixed!

Eric Schmidt at one point used the word artificial intelligence in describing the directions of where technology is heading.  He suggested search technology might be played an important role in such.  Imagine humans can ask any device to make a search by just asking in plain English!  The computers or whatever behind the scenes have to be smart enough for the questions to be answered with great accuracy and great details.  This is why cloud computing has won me over in this direction, but I have to argue as excuse me… cloud computing is good for this but not for that!  This is why I think it’s important not to overly hype cloud computing, and the people don’t need to really know what are going on behind the scenes as long things just work.  On the contrary, knowing the stuffs of what churn behind the scenes is just as important when one chooses to be curious.

It’s obvious Google has great interests in mobile technology as the company has invested great resources in the slice of this market, and you know what I’m talking about right away if you’re currently own a smart phone which runs Android operating system (OS) or have heard of this specific OS.  Eric Schmidt describes how the technology trend has so rapidly swarmed the mobile slice on a big birthday cake that I have always wanted for each birthday!  In fact the mobile slice is not a slice anymore, but it’s more like half the birthday cake.  I’m greedy!  You’re too, and this is why the whole cake is in our fat tummies in a short time.  OK, I rant on the cake so much, let take a turn back to what is important.  Eric Schmidt thinks mobile technology is the future, and some facts he said are astonishing such as more people are using smart phones and mobile devices than the traditional computers.  He also mentioned that search in mobile phones such as smart phones is going up about 50%.

Eric Schmidt also introduced new technologies that Google has been busied in perfecting such as voice recognition (and so on…).  Hugo Barra on behalf of Mr. Eric Schmidt demonstrates a perfect voice recognition technology for text messages.  Imagine you don’t have to send text messages with clumsy hands when awkward situations demand otherwise, and voice recognition works at one go for text messages is perfect for such situations.  Hugo Barra went on and demoed a call to a hotel in Berlin without knowing the phone number for the hotel beforehand – the cloud computing technology works behind the scene for this very purpose.  For a little entertainment purpose, Hugo Barra commanded his mobile device to play a Lady Gaga song “Just Dance,” and the crowd’s ears perked at the sounds.

An even more interesting demo had done by Hugo Barra was the translation mode for a mobile device.  Imagine when you walk into a Starbucks in Germany if there is one as I have no idea, and the employees there don’t speak English.  As an English gentle-person you are, you want to order a coffee with a gracious voice but in English.  Even before ordering for a Caramel Macchiato, you have already formed a mental picture of how different the taste of a Caramel Macchiato in Germany versus back at home in the United States; probably not much!  How can you order a venti Caramel Macchiato in a German Starbucks?  Ah, not a problem!  All you have to do is turning on your mobile phone, put it in the translation mode, and speak in a gracious tone that you want to order a venti Caramel Macchiato.  Push the mobile phone closer to the Starbucks’ employee so she can hear what you’ve just ordered in German as the translation mode is working.  You’ve your favorite coffee at a favorite brand that you know so well at home, but you’re doing this in a foreign country without the need of hiring a translator!  Isn’t this marvelous?

After Hugo Barra’s demos ended, he introduced a female speaker named Brittany Bohnet for the introduction of Google TV.  She said that soon people won’t want to buy a TV without a browser.  It was a statement which she made to hint at browser can enhance the TV’s experience even more.  This is where Google TV comes in!  How Google TV be any different than the TV you’re looking at now?  Google TV might be a lot smarter, and yet you can use a browser too.  How smarter?  With the cloud computational power works behind the scenes, you can speak to a smart phone which runs Android OS to tell it changes the TV channels for you.  Not just that, but just speak to it as if you’re using a remote control for the TV even though it’s not the case.  Brittany Bohnet also demoed how seamless it’s to transit from a TV channel to YouTube which is a very popular online video community.  Basically, the Internet and TV are merged into one and the whole thing provides a greater experience as Google believes it will be so.

Google is betting on its new ways of thinking such as search for TVs.  Search for TVs is great as users can just type in what they want to watch, and the users get to see the channels they are searching for instantly.  On the top of that, search for TVs can also display other search results around the specific channel or the current topic.  Users are no longer have to waste times sifting through the TV’s guides in digital or magazine formats.

TVs are larger such as those big flat screen TVs, and those are great for displaying ads in any format right?  Better ads equal better at making money!  No wonder Google is pushing for Google TV, and the company is doing a good job at it by providing amazing features that go along with the technology!

After what had demoed by Brittany Bohnet, Eric Schmidt took over the stage again.  He went on to give a closing speech and took a Q&A session with the audience.  Instead of reading my rant, why don’t you watch the video here?  It will be less boring than my writing here I promise!

In conclusion, it was an interesting gathering at this so called International Keynote.  From this event, we’re the observers are now having some ideas of how Google wants to change our behaviors in entertainment and works and communication and how we want to spend our fun times with technology.  What you think?

For your information, what I write here base on the video I watch here.  I’ve never been to an International Keynote, and so my writing here is not from an experience of an audience who was at this event. Source.