It can be a pain to install phone apps you know you'll use just once or twice. The app runs on Google's servers instead of your phone. Only the parts you need get sent to your phone on an as-needed basis. If it works as Google envisions, without lags and other annoyances, users won't have to spend a few minutes downloading and installing that app and having it take up valuable space on the phone. The app maker needs to enable this feature, though.

If the brand-new, voice-activated Google Assistant inhabiting Google Home could somehow have a private conversation with Alexa, its counterpart and soon-to-be rival inside Amazon Echo, the conversation would ask: "What the heck is Siri up to?" The question takes on added relevance now that Google has unveiled Google Home, its promising, off-rumored answer to Amazon's increasingly popular--and increasingly versatile -- Echo speaker. If Google Home lives up to its promise, and we won't know for sure until this small, yet-to-be-priced, always-listening appliance shows up later in the year, then we'll have another relevant voice-driven device inside the house to play music, control the appliances (Nest anyone?), and, yes, leverage Google's expertise in search. Moreover, Google Home, which brings to mind Google's OnHub routers, also communicates with the Chromecast device you might have plugged into your TV, leading to all sorts of intriguing possibilities with YouTube and other Google properties. So yes, we have Google Home versus Amazon Echo, and it's worth noting that Google CEO Sundar Pinchai credited Amazon during his I/O remarks for "creating a lot of excitement in this space."

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 unleashed its 2016 developers conference on Mountain View, CA this morning. The company debuted a bunch of new products including its answer to Amazon's Alexa, dubbed Google Home; a new VR headset called Daydream (along with a new VR section for Play) and two new messaging apps, Allo and Duo. Google also showed off some of the new features we can expect in the upcoming Android N operating system, a full-blown overhaul of the Android Wear ecosystem, updates to Android Auto and some new tricks for Google Pay.

Google is fighting harder than ever to get into your household. On Wednesday the company announced its entry into the voice-activated virtual assistant race with Google Home, its answer to the Amazon Echo. Google Home promises to live alongside you wherever you reside, answering your questions, playing your music and reading your news, much like its popular rival. It'll also have Google search built in, which means it'll know a lot about you as soon as you sign in. "We want users to have an ongoing two-way dialogue with Google," Google CEO Sundar Pichai said at the company's I/O developer conference on Wednesday. To be sure, the company already knows where you are, where you live and what you had for dinner this week (assuming you find your recipes through the search engine).

We decided to ask our married couples about the content of the first message their partner sent them online, and the answers were pretty surprising. In fact, 35% of married women actually contacted their current partner first, serving as inspiration for women who are still on the fence when it comes to making the first move.

Google today introduced its own personal digital assistant called, aptly, the Google Assistant. It's based on existing technology, including Google Now. The assistant will power Google's upcoming Amazon Echo competitor, Google Home. Speaking at the beginning of the keynote at the Google I/O developer conference in Mountain View, California, Google chief executive Sundar Pichai described the technology as "a conversational assistant" that can carry on "an ongoing two-way dialogue." "We want to be there for our users asking them, 'How can I help?'"

The Alphabet Inc. division unveiled a new mobile messaging application Wednesday called Allo containing a digital personal assistant, based on AI technology that powers other Google services like Inbox. At its I/O developer conference near its Silicon Valley headquarters, the company also showed off a voice-based search device called Google Home that uses the same assistant technology to answer questions when people are in their houses, a potentially potent rival to Amazon.com Google CEO Sundar Pichai said the goal is to develop an "on-going two-way dialog with Google" and build billions of people their own "individual Google." The CEO sees the Google digital assistant as an "ambient experience that extends across devices." Google became one of the world's most valuable companies by making a search engine that sucks in billions of queries people type into web browsers on PCs and phones.

While Apple (AAPL) has Siri, its AI-based digital assistant for iPhones, it has yet to introduce a home hub device. Amazon, though, has sold an estimated 3 million Echo home hubs. "Credit to the team at Amazon for creating a lot of excitement in this space," Google CEO Sundar Pichai said in his I/O keynote speech Wednesday. Google Home, designed for music streaming and other entertainment, features built-in search capabilities. The "virtual agent" answers simple questions and carries out basic tasks.

Despite spinning off an Alphabet-soup of divisions, the Google mothership remains a sprawling company, so it's unsurprising that its annual developer's conference covers a continent of territory. In a two-hour-long keynote, the company took the audience on a tour of its upcoming tools and technologies. Here's a quick trip through what you missed. And don't forget to check out our in-depth analysis: A glimpse inside Google's VR Daydream, One Android to rule them all? A global on-line paper-airplane game and, to quote one our live-bloggers, "video of lots of happy people doing weird things" leading up to the event set the tone, and as usual began with a recap of how Google's evolved and how well it's doing.