Google announced a bunch of new products today at the I/O 2016 conference in Mountain View, California. Some, like Google Home and Android N, were expected while others, such as the VR standard Daydream, weren't. Here's the best of what they announced: The search company announced an always-listening virtual assistant for the home at today's Google I/O 2016. Similar to Amazon's Echo, Google Home will allow users to discover movie times, answer a question, or carry out a task using a vocal command from anywhere in the room. In addition, Google Home can control your TV, presumably if it has a Chromecast attached.

Google is catching up to competitors Facebook, Apple and Amazon in messaging, video calling and home speaker-embedded digital assistants. But it's taking the lead in virtual reality and may have changed mobile phones forever with a new twist on mobile apps that allows them to play without being installed. That's the conclusion of Jan Dawson, an analyst with Jackdaw Research, who was at the Google I/O annual developers conference Wednesday in Mountain View, California. Dawson said Google's new Allo app focuses on the search giant's strengths in search and natural language recognition, but may have come too late behind bigger rivals to gain much use. In a research note he praised Google's new Daydream virtual reality platform, but noted it'll take time to become popular because the high bar for specifications means no devices can support it yet.

Google wants to play an even bigger role in managing people's daily lives, while also nudging them into an alternate reality, as the Internet company responds to competitive threats posed by Facebook, Amazon and Apple. As part of an onslaught of upcoming products, Google will implant a more personable form of artificial intelligence into an Internet-connected device called Home, which echoes the Echo, Amazon.com's Meanwhile, Google will also delve deeper into the still-nascent realm of virtual reality with a system called Daydream that's meant to challenge Facebook-owned Oculus's early lead in fabricating artificial worlds. In an attempt to outshine Apple, Google is also adding features to its Android operating system, including the ability to run apps without actually installing them on a device. That feature, called Instant Apps, might have been the biggest breakthrough that Google announced Wednesday at its annual developers conference held in an amphitheater located a few blocks from its Mountain View, California, headquarters.

This morning, Google laid out its ambitious vision for the future, and a series of spectacular Google products that will take us there. At its I/O developer conference, the company unveiled a series of new products centered around the company's core competency: Unrivaled search and machine intelligence systems. Unlike earlier years, Google's big reveals were previews -- products launching "later this year" -- not immediate launches. And the most significant announcements -- personal assistant tech and smart messaging apps -- are products that Google rivals Amazon, Apple and Facebook already have out in the market. It's a sign that Google feels confident it can ship these products that are packed, in theory, with impressive, cutting-edge AI. "We want to talk to you a little bit about the future," CEO Sundar Pichai said at the onset of the keynote.

After falling behind to tech rivals on mobile messaging, Google is jumping back in. At its I/O developer conference, Google introduced a new app called Allo that incorporates its personal assistant and artificial intelligence tech into the app. "Given our expertise in machine learning, we wanted to approach this core use case from a new perspective," CEO Sundar Pichai said onstage introducing the project. Allo's key feature is having Google's intelligence baked in -- its search-based assistant as well as its "smart reply" feature from Google inbox. "Allo uses machine learning to suggest replies on the fly, anticipating what you might want to say next," Erik Kay, a Google engineering manager, said onstage.

Google has begun to build its own custom application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) chip called tensor processing units (TPUs), Google chief executive Sundar Pichai said today at the Google I/O developer conference in Mountain View, California. The name is inspired by Google's TensorFlow open source deep learning framework. But the technology is one of a kind -- something that makes sense only at Google scale. These TPUs were used in the AlphaGo artificial intelligence (AI) powered Go player that beat top-ranked Go player Lee Sedol, Pichai said. It also works inside Google search and Google Street View.

From virtual reality to a new smart-home speaker, Google is showing off just how pervasive it has become even as it's squeezed by its biggest competitors--Facebook, Apple and Amazon. Google showed off a VR system called Daydream, along with plans for headsets that will compete with Facebook's Oculus Rift. In a jab at Amazon, the company announced Google Home, an Internet-connected speaker that listens for your voice commands to play music or control lights and thermostats in the home. It is reminiscent of Amazon's Echo and will be available later this year for a yet-unannounced price. In an attempt to outshine Apple, Google is also adding features to its Android operating system, including the ability to run apps without actually installing apps.

Google I/O was full of announcements about upcoming products and enhancements. We're in a seminal moment, said Google chief executive (CEO) Sundar Pichai kicking off the company's annual I/O Conference in San Francisco. Looking back at the past 17(?!) years, Pichai discussed Google's evolution to the live audience of 7,000. As technology gets more sophisticated, he sees artificial intelligence (AI) playing a huge role in the company's next 17 years. "Leveraging our state-of-the-art capabilities in machine learning and AI, we truly want to take the next step in being more assistive to our user. Today, we are announcing the Google Assistant," said Pichai, one of the only people in the world who's allowed to use the "L" word on Search Engine Watch.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is gaining momentum across industries with the help of companies such as IBM, Google, and Microsoft. McKinsey & Company estimates that as much as 45% of the tasks currently performed by people can be automated using current technologies -- not only low-level rote tasks, but high-level knowledge work as well. "Our point of view is that there is no function, no industry, almost no role that won't potentially be affected by this set of technologies -- not just every occupation, but every activity within each occupation," said Michael Chui, a partner with McKinsey Global Institute, in an interview. "It's not just automating the labor that's being done, but the work people do will have to change as well. Understanding how to take advantage of these technologies is going to be critically important."

Google showed off a VR system called Daydream, along with plans for headsets that will compete with Facebook's Oculus Rift. In a jab at Amazon, the company announced Google Home, an Internet-connected speaker that listens for your voice commands to play music or control lights and thermostats in the home. It is reminiscent of Amazon's Echo and will be available later this year for a yet-unannounced price. In an attempt to outshine Apple, Google is also adding features to its Android operating system, including the ability to run apps without actually installing apps. That's perhaps the one truly new thing Google announced Wednesday. It is Google's answer to the pain of installing phone apps you know you'll use just once or twice, for shopping or booking a parking spot, for example.