Google CEO Sundar Pichai already announced the dates for this year's Google I/O conference on Twitter. This year, it will take place at the Shoreline Amphitheatre in Mountain View, California from May 18 to May 20. The annual event is a place for Google to unleash all of its software and service announcements, but it also allows developers to get in touch with the creator of the biggest search engine and mobile operating system. Updated on 03/01/2016 by Julian Chokkattu: Added in more details on registration dates for Google's event. Google's I/O 2016 web page is now live. As the date looms closer, Google has offered more information on when you can register and how much a ticket will take a bite out of your wallet. Registration opens on March 8 at 9 am PT and will run until March 10 at 5 pm PT, and to register you'll need to sign in with a Google account and fill out the application. Registering doesn't guarantee entrance into the three-day conference — which is pricey. General admission tickets are $900, but you can get academic tickets for $300 if you're an "active full-time student, professor, faculty or staff at a high school or higher education institution." The venue is a change in scenery for Google, which has used the Moscone Center for all of its I/O events since it started the annual conference. The Shoreline Amphitheatre is an outdoor venue with the capacity for 22,500 attendees, so let's hope it doesn't rain. I/O'16 coming to neighborhood where it all started 10 yrs ago: Shoreline Amphitheatre in Mountain View, May 18-20. More details soon. #io16 — sundarpichai (@sundarpichai) January 12, 2016 The outdoor venue does raise some questions, such as the possibility of a Project Wing or Project Loon demo. The company's self-driving car division might also be on site to answer any questions and give people a tour of the venue without driving, possibly revealing the self-driving taxi that was rumored a few months ago. Related: Google's Project Zero chastised Trend Micro over security vulnerability "Shoreline Amphitheatre" by Coolcaesar Coolcaesar/Wikipedia Commons The past year has been exciting for Google, as the company went through a major restructuring. Sundar Pichai went from head of services to head of the entire company, with co-founder and head honcho Larry Page moving to chief executive of Alphabet, the parent holding company. We aren't sure if Google I/O will be all about Google or all about Alphabet. Google only covers Android, Gmail, Search, and a few other key services now, with most of the Google X operations turned into separate divisions inside the Alphabet umbrella. In the past two years, I/O has become more about software and developers, and less about new hardware and moonshots. Only time will tell what this year holds.
