The web has been a-twitter this week with the excitement surrounding the Google I/O 2016. The giveaways, the updates, the inevitable criticism, and the simmering competition with Apple. The Venngage team were certainly eager to crack open some beers and stream the keynote at lunch on Wednesday.

After all, some big things are happening at Google right now: the announcement of Android N, which Google is crowdsourcing the name for (our agreement around the table was “Nougat”); a mobile VR platform; the new messaging platform Allo (which allows you to control font size…COOL) and its accompanying video chatting platform, Duo; the science fiction-y awesomeness that is Google Home, Google’s response to Amazon’s Echo. Seriously, Google Home is so cool. My only question is, how does one kill it if it decides overthrow you (yeah, I’m thinking of HAL 9000)?

Over the years, the Google I/O has been the platform for introduction of some of Google’s biggest success stories, some of their biggest product failures–and a few mysterious disappearances.

Take one of Google’s most successful products: the release of Android, way back in 2008. Although Android’s initial reception was lukewarm, the OS is now on its fourteenth iteration, a testament to its enormous success. There are approximately 107.7 million Android users to date.

But 2012 saw one of Google’s lowest lows: Nexus Q. A device that allowed you to stream from your Android mobile device, the Nexus Q was met with overwhelming criticism for being too expensive and frivolous a product. One New York Times columnist described it as a “baffling” device. Yikes.

On the more mysterious side, take the 2011 announcement of Android@Home. Android@Home was Google’s first attempt at breaking into the home automation market–a service that would turn your home into a network of compatible Android tools products. But the product vanished after the announcement. Google had paired up with LightingScience at the time to release Android-controlled LED lightbulbs, but later that year, any mention of Android@Home had been banned from the LightingScience site. Quel mystère!

We decided to take a look at some of the Google I/O’s greatest highs and lowest of lows, year over year, and create an infographic timeline to walk you through the journey. Successes are color coded green and failures are color coded red.



<a title="Infographic: History of Google I/O | Venngage" href="https://venngage.com/blog/google-io"> <img src="https://venngage.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/History-IO.png" alt="Infographic: History of Google I/O | Venngage" /></a> History of Google I/O | <a href="https://venngage.com" style="color: #C7C5C5; text-decoration: none; font-style: italic;">Infographic Maker </a>

Want to create your own infographic timeline? Try out one of our infographic timeline templates.

The infographic in this post was created by Joanna Lu.