With the cancellation of Google I/O earlier in the year, the release cadence for new info from Google has felt a bit strange through the second half of 2020. Generally, I/O happens in May and gives Google a huge platform to share out all sorts of info about Android, Google Assistant, Chrome OS, and search. Without that platform in 2020, however, things have been turned virtual and parsed out along the way, bit by bit, here and there.

For instance, we saw the ‘Hey Google’ virtual event and the Assistant Developer Day both go virtual and dole out the sorts of somewhat-dry info that you expect from non-keynote sessions at Google I/O each year. That’s not to say those sessions are packed with nuggets of great info: they’re just geared for developers and get pretty technical and in the weeds most times. Even the Chrome OS sessions at I/O each year have always been a bit tough to absorb in the past for geeks like myself.

Amping up the intrigue

I suppose the difference with this event Google is touting is in the presentation. Generally speaking, Google doesn’t make a whole lot of noise for a virtual event that is software driven. Sure, the new hardware always gets a date and a launch, but software stuff usually just shows up and then we all talk about it. This feels a bit different, but there’s not much in the way of explanation from the tweet about this upcoming event:

Heading to that URL, you just get the exact same info as you see in the tweet with the additional ability to add the event directly to your calendar. I dug around the page’s source info and didn’t come up with anything fun, so what you see is what you get, here. Again, Google launches and releases things all the time without setting a date or making an event out of it. Consider the big realignment of G Suite into Google Workspace: it was a big deal but there was no ‘event’ to announce it. Instead, they posted on The Keyword and let the tech media do its thing.

That’s why this all feels a bit mysterious. In the end, it looks like Google is simply updating us all on what’s new in search, how it may change and why we should sit up and take notice. It matters for sure since Google is one of the primary ways most of us find and organize our info, but it just feels out of place to host an event to make some announcements. Does this mean there’s more to it? Does it mean there’s a bigger announcement than what we expect? We’re not sure, but most definitely are interested. See you at 3PM EST tomorrow and we’ll all know for sure.