Amazing how little attention this is getting.

Still can't say I'm surprised about either point. They were clearly stuck for material for that third day and I heard definite noises about them sharing the concerns some of us voiced about the attendee demographics!

Frankly the 2013 keynote was a tad embarrassing too (without the giveaway the mood in there would've been a lot more skeptical - my row were amazed by how bad a lot of the demos were), so I wonder if they're going to tone that down.

And then, some sessions were difficult to get in to.

A lottery is the only sensible way they can handle the increased demand for tickets. I was saying they should have done this two years ago. It just makes so much more sense. No getting up at 6am and madly refreshing a page. It's just a much more considerate and friendly process. Similar to receiving a callback from customer support instead of sitting on hold for thirty minutes.

I wonder if people will be happier or more frustrated with the lottery setup.

And... I wonder if such a lottery system would help take on general ticket scalping. (I could see a lottery mechanism doing some kind of 'real person' verification.)

It makes not receiving a ticket feel less insulting.

1) No feeling of "I missed the 2 minute window"

2) No feeling of "I couldn't buy it because your system was down"

I mean it still sucks for people that can't make it, but want to go, but at least everyone at least gets a chance this way.

Conversely, not pounding F5 until I get a ticket makes me feel powerless.

>> Conversely, not pounding F5 until I get a ticket makes me feel powerless.

Actually, last year they implemented some kind of IP-based persistence for each potential attendee: you could try to get on queue for a ticket on your smartphone or laptop and every time you access the timer did a reset.

At least that had an interactive element in jumping back into the queue when Google Wallet stalled out.

I know the year before last the tickets were transferable if you claimed you couldn't attend, but they weren't this past Google IO. Not that people don't register and then just sell the badge or share it anyway.

They're going to switch to a lottery system for admission. thats kind of neat.

It's interesting to see that they went back to a two day conference. For the past two years it was three days long.

I didn't get to go in 2013, so I don't know if things changed then, but in 2012 the third day just seemed hastily bolted-on.

There were not as many talks on the third day, and they were the less-interesting ones. The demo pit had been completely dismantled and removed overnight after the second day's program had ended. There was a box lunch instead of a hot lunch like the first two days.

I wound up leaving halfway through day 3, instead spending the afternoon looking to explore SF a little and get a couple beers.

Both times that third day was weird. The convention center was already partially cleaned up and it had the feeling of somewhere to wait for a flight.

I welcome the change and think it is a good solution.

I'm surprised this hasn't been mentioned yet, especially for the HN crowd, but it's relatively easy for any developer to write a bot to auto-register them-self. One could even use Selenium.

There is a very popular Google Developer's MeetUp and space for 200+ runs out in less than 5 minutes of unannounced meetings opening up for registration. I am 100% sure that a lot of bots can and do register for these events.

>> I'm surprised this hasn't been mentioned yet, especially for the HN crowd, but it's relatively easy for any developer to write a bot to auto-register them-self. One could even use Selenium.

Well, I'm not completely sure if it is that easy. Last year they had a first queue to get a ticket which did reset every time you opened a tab in your browser or entering via another device. After that, you had another queue to access your personal data, and finally you needed to use Checkout for buying the ticket. Not sure if they're going to do the same, but I'd love to hear some kind of programming challenges to get yours.

Do folks from non-US countries attend Google I/O?

Yes. For the first few years, I was amazed at how far people would travel for it. (They still do, I'm just used to it now.)

Indeed. There are plenty from a lot of countries, even to places where there are not Google offices there.

My company pays for the trip. This makes it even more unfortunate if you don't get a ticket: It not only costs you a good conference, but also a free trip to san francisco. ;)

Visa hassle and trip cost could be off putting considering you could watch all the videos at home.

there is no "visa hassle" if you come from Europe, and there are no trip cost since the company pays for everything.

While the sessions are available as video streams, the sessions and discussions in between the sessions are not. I was at I/O last year and I not only had a good time, I also learned a lot during the three days.

Shame it clashes with O'Reilly's Velocity Conference - http://velocityconf.com/ as I'd like to do both (they did this the year before last too)