Today, as I was opening the quick preview email Google sent out ahead of it’s virtual ‘Hey Google’ event, I was pleasantly reminded of the fact that I’d sort of forgotten the event was happening so soon. I saw the email subject and quickly remembered that tomorrow, we’re hoping to see some new hardware from Google in the form of a new Google Home and the hotly-anticipated Chromecast/Android TV dongle.
When I opened the email, however, I was a little shocked. It opened by saying we were only a few hours from the start of the event. I immediately remarked to Gabriel how strange that is to say for an event that is a full day away. And then I looked at the email again and realized it still stated that the event would be held on July 8th. So, being curious, I immediately hit the big View Agenda button to see if there was an addition to the event that might be happening later today.
That link took me to the same landing page that we saw a little over a week ago, except now the timer on that page is counting down single-digit hours before the event starts…at 10PM eastern time this evening. Confused yet? I sure am. So strange is this that I checked multiple times, refreshed the page, viewed incognito, etc. just to be sure that we’re all on the same page and talking about the same EDT time zone. Make no mistake: this thing is going down at 10PM tonight.
Sure, that’s morning on the other side of the globe, but I’m unsure why in the world Google would host an event at this time in the evening. I suppose it makes some sense over where they are headquartered. For Googlers, it will be 7PM on the west coast, so maybe that’s the reasoning. In any event, it seems quite odd. As a matter of fact, it is so odd that I’d assume the landing page for the event has had an AM/PM shift by accident and the times on the page and the countdown timer are simply incorrect if I’d not received the email already stating the event would start in the next few hours.
Whatever the reasoning, it seems Google is ready to roll this stuff out a little earlier than expected. I’ll still be assuming that this is all in error until 10PM rolls around and the event actually begins. If it is an error, this is a pretty big blunder for Google’s first post-cancelled-I/O virtual event. If it isn’t an error, this is a very strange move. Either way it shakes out, I’m going to be sitting in front of a Chromebook at 10PM tonight to watch the event. Registration is still up and you can technically get signed up if you still want to. We’ll be recapping everything that gets announced immediately following the event, so I guess its going to be a late night for the Chrome Unboxed crew. Strange times.
