Google I/O: Gemini Dominates Search, SGE Goes Live
The developer conference keynote was all about AI, search not so much.
Google's I/O keynote was all about Gemini. "We are fully in our Gemini era," CEO Sundar Pichai intoned in his opening remarks. The fusillade of announcements that followed were dominated by Gemini and new features claiming to be best-in-class or breakthrough capabilities.
Search was there but in a secondary or supporting role. Gemini was the star.
In addition to search, the Gemini announcements touched nearly every product category: DeepMind, Android, Assistant, Workspace, Photos, Google Cloud and others. Just a day before, however, OpenAI held its comparatively low key ChatGPT-4o launch presentation, which preempted Google I/O – by design. And it succeeded in stealing some of the thunder from the Gemini announcements.
The I/O keynote was largely directed, we suspect, at tech journalists and Wall Street investors, in an effort to provide reassurance and reclaim the AI leadership narrative from OpenAI.