Those working in the digital agency sphere are always looking for the latest and greatest in search, mobile and web development to bring to their clients. Keeping abreast of what Google, one of the most important players in the industry, is doing can keep you ahead of the game and your clients on the front page.
The search giant held its annual developer conference Google I/O from May 18 – 20 at the Shoreline Amphitheater in Mountain View, California, though many sessions were live-streamed. Google I/O shares upcoming news, features and products that the company has launched or plans to launch; this year, it seems the focus was on artificial intelligence and the mobile Web. Though many products were focused on the end user, digital marketers should pay attention to what’s to come and how to prepare for it.
The Most Interesting Things for Digital Agencies

A lot happened during Google I/O this year. While most products and features are still a long way from ubiquity, some have real implications for digital agencies now.
Android Instant Apps

Content is now spread over various channels on the go: namely mobile sites, some of which are not responsive and therefore serve different content, and apps, which are a completely different animal. Users are sometimes unwilling to download an entire app just to be able to shop online, but they also don’t want to use a cumbersome mobile site to do so. To combat this, Google announced Instant Apps, a new feature for Android users that will roll out later this year. Instant Apps allow users to access a feature that normally requires an app download and serve it up in the current browser. Google says that developers do not need to build two separate apps for this to work; instead, developers must only to modularize the app to allow Google Play to download the parts of the app that are needed. It can take less than a day to complete, said product manager Suresh Ganapathy in a blog post introducing the feature. This feature can really change the way apps are monetized, as downloads won’t be the only indication of their usage. Digital agencies should start the work on configuring their apps to work with Android Instant apps to ensure they serve up the same content as their competitors, if not better.
Google Assistant

Google assistant isn’t a new concept, as it has been described as an evolved form of Google Now, an intelligent personal assistant that was introduced in 2012. This Google assistant, however, would be available across all devices and contexts, Google said in a blog post the day of the announcement. The first two places consumers can expect to see Google assistant is Google Home, a voice-activated product that can control various things in your home, and Allo and Duo, a messaging app and companion video-calling app. One example of the Google assistant functionality is the ability to not only look up movie showtimes, but order the tickets as well, something Siri, the Apple competitor, cannot do.
Google CEO Sundar Pichai explained during the Google I/O keynote that voice searches made up 20 percent of all queries on the Google mobile app and Android devices. The increased usage of voice search means that users want simple answers, and fast. Because the results they get from Google Assistant will not be a choice like the SERPs but just a single answer, digital marketers should ensure that simple questions are easily answered (with clear, well-written content) on their clients online properties.

Universal App Campaigns

Now on iOS
Mobile usage has grown tremendously in just a few years, and app usage more than anything else. To build on that, Google has announced that Universal App Campaigns, which allows developers to deploy ad campaigns across the Google Display Network, the Google Search Network (Google Play and Google search) and YouTube, would be available for iOS. The campaigns can now target users on the basis of in-app conversions, such as leveling up in a game.
Google reported that Universal App Campaigns drove more than 2 billion app downloads since the feature was released last year, that number will grow fast, especially now that the campaigns are available for iOS. Digital agencies should get prepared to start deploying these campaigns on Apple’s market, which has a smaller but strong user base.

Google I/O is arguably the company’s biggest event of the year. The new products and features are exciting, especially the virtual reality and smart home products but for digital agencies, they can be business-changing.

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