Mark Bergen says, “Google has grown up.

At least that was a popular verdict from Day One of I/O on Thursday — that the major presentation lacked Google’s renowned childlike weirdness. That it was dull. Unlike prior years, there were no new device giveaways or skydiving, Glass-wearing founders. (Although Day Two brought some magic.)

But the three critical new products — a photos app, a VR platform and a revamped Google Now — reflect a certain business maturity, as Google awakens to its threats on mobile and moves to attain the same centrality to our digital lives it had on the desktop. To do so, Google is falling back on its core DNA as an artificial intelligence company.

Take Photos. By far, the most admired (though far from surprising) debut at I/O, it’s a standalone app that stores and organizes photos the way Gmail does for email“.

With Its New Mobile Features, Google Returns to Form

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