WebProNews

On Wednesday, Google held its Annual Developer Conference, which this year dealt a lot with the acceleration of the open web platform. There was a specific focus on HTML 5, which Google says is enabling developers to build uniquely powerful web apps.

Google announced the following new products at the conference:

- Google Web Elements
- Java Language Support for App Engine
- Android Developer Challenge 2

Google Web Elements is described as "an easy way to incorporate Google products onto a website or blog." This includes Maps, News, and YouTube videos, as well as Google Friend Connect comment functionality.

The general availability of Java language support in App Engine provides developers with an end-to-end Java language solution for building AJAX web apps. Over 80,000 web apps have been built on App Engine since its launch just over a year ago.

The Android Developer Challenge 2 is a Google-funded initiative to reward developers for building innovative and useful apps for Android. The winner gets up to a quarter million dollars. The winner will be announced in November.

"Bet on the web," said Vic Gundotra, VP of Developer Products at Google. "Its rate of innovation has dramatically accelerated over the past 12 months, giving rise to an open web platform that's fundamentally more capable and more sophisticated than even a year ago. The combination of HTML 5, a vibrant developer community, and the pervasiveness of modern web browsers is delivering a programming model and an end-user experience that will surprise and delight people."

The web is clearly getting more interesting and innovative by the day. Google is often a catalyst to this. It will be interesting to see what kind of apps have come out between this conference and next year's.