Google typically reveals details about its yearly I/O developer conference via a cryptic teaser that turns into an elaborate, interactive puzzle. This year all of that has been sidestepped, as Lawnchair developer Till Kottmann has "cheated" the answer out of Google. I/O 2019 will be at the Shoreline Amphitheater in Mountain View, CA on May 7th through the 9th.

This year's teaser is viewable here, and it's a bit of a trip. Although the idiomatic cat is out of the bag, it may still be worth a watch if you're after free I/O tickets, which Google sometimes hides inside these puzzles. Since the answer has already been revealed, there may even be a bit less competition.

Kotmann may have circumvented the spirit of the puzzle, but it was a legitimate solution. Rather than actually determining what/where the hints in the video pointed to as part of the elaborate pseudo-scavenger hunt, he found the file listing for the storage bucket the video was hosted on, examined the data json (since removed), and snagged both the I/O 2019 dates, graphic, and associated info contained therein. In grossly oversimplified terms: Google left behind some information it shouldn't have at the site that hosted the teaser video, and he found it.

Whatever the mechanism behind the reveal, now that we know the dates, we can all make sure our calendars are set. If history is any indicator, the Keynote is likely to be sometime around 10AM PT (1PM ET) on May 7th, so go ahead and block off an hour or two then on your schedule if you'd like to tune in.

UPDATE: 2019/01/25 3:16pm PST BY STEPHEN SCHENCK

Not that we were feeling at all uncertain about this interpretation of Google's I/O puzzle teaser, but CEO Sundar Pichai has now weighed in to confirm the dates:

Source: Till Kottmann, I/O Transmission