Giveaways are always a big deal at the Google I/O developer conference, and this year was no exception. The approximately 7,000 developers who attended each had the opportunity to get a free Google Home speaker and $700 worth of cloud computing credits.
The conference giveaways tend to point in the direction of Google’s strategy, and this year it seems intent on catching Amazon in the home Internet of Things (IoT) market. For that it needs to woo developers to create new voice-based apps for its Home speaker — which explains the giveaways. The company is hoping that its experience in search and artificial intelligence will give it an advantage in this area.
