Google: How the company’s biggest annual event, Google I/O, got its name – Times of India

Google has a rich history and the name of the company itself has a story behind it. Those related to the tech industry might know that “Google” was born from misspelling of “googol”, which means a number represented by a 1 followed by 100 zeroes. Google is holding its annual developers conference on May 10 but did you know how the event got its name?
Google I/O common explanations
A quick Google search will return two commonly cited explanations. The first is that the “I/O” stands for “input/output.” This is a reference to the computational concept of interfacing between a computer system and the outside world.

The second one is that I/O stands for “innovation in the open”. This seems to be a fitting explanation as Google unveils and gives a sneak peek into research, artificial intelligence (AI) (for some time now), accessibility features, and next-generation products, among others.
Google I/O debut
Google I/O debuted as an event in 2007 but it wasn’t called I/O at that time.
“It was an event called Google Developer Day, which we hosted at the San Jose Convention Center with 1,000 tickets for developers,” said Lorin Platto, director of events and experiences operations and one of the original I/O event organisers.
In that event, Google engineers and product experts presented sessions on developer tools at the San Jose Convention Center as well as at local events around the world.
“The San Jose event had only been open for an hour before it reached capacity. And that’s when we realised that the following year, we would need to really take this up a notch,” Lorin added.

In 2008, the event moved to San Francisco’s Moscone Center West – a bigger venue – and that’s when the event got its official name.
Connection between Google and I/O
Just like Google’s name, I/O was also based on something numerical. As mentioned above how Google got its name, I/O has a similar naming history.
“A googol is a one, followed by 100 zeroes, so that’s where the I/O name and logo came from. We just took the first one and zero, and we left off all the other zeroes. It all goes back to Google,” explained Lorin.
“And then as we were brainstorming, we started talking about what that one and zero could mean. That’s where the ‘input/output’ and ‘innovation in the open’ slogans came from,” Lorin added.

Google I/O 2023
According to Mike Pegg, who helped lead I/O on the marketing side from 2011 through 2017, I/O means Google I/O now and it embodies all of Google.
“It’s grown to be more than a developer conference, it’s a great representation of everything we’re doing and wants to share with the world. When Sundar [Pichai] takes the stage, and says, ‘Good morning everyone, and welcome to Google I/O,’ it’s like, ‘ahhhh, we’re here’,” Pegg said.
Google I/O will take place on Wednesday (May 10) and the event will kick off with the Google keynote at 10 am PT (10:30 pm IST).