In a recent meeting we were playing with the question:
“If Google was a super hero, what would we be?”
The first thing that came to mind was Iron Man. You know, the innovative engineer who uses his technical ability to become super human.
In the developer group our mission is to make sure that Tony Stark uses his power for good. In our case, we want to give away the suits to democratize AI, computing, and more. We take this mission seriously.
Why do we need to innovate and also help developers? Let’s turn back to Tony again. His origin story included the need to create a source that can power an electromagnet keeping shrapnel from reaching his heart. Innovation due to necessity.
Google is a platform company, and one that thrives with open ecosystems. It is imperative that we do all we can to help the survival of open systems over closed ones. This is why we care so much about an open Web, Android, TensorFlow, and open cloud computing.
We also know that we are still young. Google is turning 19 a pivotal time for anyone. Can we keep our youthful optimism whilst gaining maturity?
Brother Chrome, Brother Android
I am currently in Krakow for the large European Google Developer Days (a beautiful city!) and a developer came up to me to ask how I felt about “Chrome vs. Android”. Someone else leaned in to ask if I was frustrated with the fact that we “have so many platforms.” I get it. We have multiple platforms, and they are sometimes a lil more messy due to their openness.
On the flip side though, I wouldn’t have it another way. Where some may see “Chrome vs. Android” I see “Chrome and Android”. Not only does Android literally give us a vehicle for us to build a world class mobile Web browser that can push on rich integration, but the reach that we have with both is amazing:
- With Android we have a world mobile OS that is on billions of devices all over he world
- With Chrome, and even more broadly — the Web, we extend the reach to non-Android devices.
That sounds like a killer duo to me. Ben and I actually just gave a short talk about the “brothers” of mobile native and the Web, and they journey as siblings growing up together.
I look forward to a bright future for all.
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