Thousands of people gathered near Google's headquarters on Wednesday to hear the company's vision for the future.In past years, Google has used its developers' conference to unveil all sorts of shiny new toys and services.Not all of them have been smash hits, however. Google Glass had its big coming-out party at I/O in 2012, after all. Google TV was the star of 2010. And remember the Nexus Q, the orb-shaped music player that never even reached the market?But even those products were examples of Google planting a stake in the ground, letting the world know that its engineers and researchers had cooked up something new and original that the company was willing to make a bet on.This year's crop of products, on the other hand, have a decidedly déjà vu feeling to them. Google is reacting to threats, and defending its turf, rather than leading the charge into new territory.ConsiderThe star of the show this year was Google Home[1], a sleek, me-too version of the Amazon Echo product. Google CEO Sundar Pichai admitted as much on stage and in an interview with CNET[2], in which he credited Amazon for being the first to "point the way."Google Assistant[3]: First came Apple's Siri, then Amazon's Alexa. Now Google has released its version of a virtual assistant to help you get things done.That's not to downplay Google's pioneering work in artificial intelligence and speech recognition, the technological underpinnings that make its Assistant service possible. That behind-the-scenes technology could turn out to be the secret sauce that allows Google's virtual assistant to succeed where Apple's Siri has struggled.But again, the consumer-facing implementation is clearly inspired by Apple and Amazon. And there's no denying that Google needs its new Assistant service to help its business adapt to a world where consumers don't necessarily visit a…

We're now accepting submissions for our 2016 Top Company Cultures list. Think your company should be on it? Apply Now »[1] Chieh Huang is the CEO of Boxed Wholesale[2], a company that strives to make buying paper towels in bulk seamless. It is all about efficiency and cost-savings. His business, however, is no indication of the kind of boss he is. Huang is about the most empathetic, big-hearted, generous boss you will ever find.The 34-year old just announced that he is going to pay for the wedding expenses for all of his employees. This isn't his first act of kindness toward his employees. Last year, Huang announced that he would start paying for the college tuition of the children of his employees.Related: This Business Owner Is Paying for His Employees' Kids to Go to College[3]Marcel Graham, a 26-year old employee working in the Boxed shipping fulfillment center in New Jersey, is set to be married in November. Graham’s mother has fallen ill, however, and Graham spent all of the savings he had intended to go toward the wedding taking care of his mother.Huang stepped in. “We just felt like once someone is part of the Boxed family, we want to be there for them in their time of need,” he says in a press release announcing the new benefit.What was right for Graham was right for all of the Boxed employees, according to Huang. “It then just felt right to extend this benefit to all our valued employees.”There are 122 full-time employees at Boxed Wholesale, and all of them are eligible. Huang will contribute $20,000 towards each wedding.Related: What Inspires Entrepreneurs to Work as Hard as They Do[4]Huang arranged for Graham’s fiancée, Tara Aucoin, to be at the fulfillment center when Huang announced he will cover their wedding expenses.“It was…

Billionaire environmental activist Tom Steyer's super PAC launched a $25 million youth voter drive on Monday in seven political battleground states to help elect candidates that champion climate change policies in November's general election.Steyer's NextGen Climate super PAC, a political group that raises funds to boost candidates with strong environmental platforms, said the campaign aims to boost turnout of millennials, who have become one of the largest potential voter groups.In the lead-up to the November general election, NextGen will deploy hundreds of organizers across over 200 colleges to register young voters and facilitate on-campus voting."We are determined that they will be a difference maker," Steyer told reporters on a conference call.The group is targeting seven battleground states where Steyer said millennial voters could "make up the difference in a tight race."Those states are Pennsylvania, Iowa, Ohio, New Hampshire, Nevada, Illinois and Colorado.Steyer has been the second largest individual political donor in 2016, having spent $13 million so far this year, according to OpenSecrets.org.NextGen said the number of registered millennials has nearly tripled since 2008 from 17.2 million to 50.3 million, making the demographic a key political force in 2016.Climate change and clean energy is an area where there is widespread millennial interest.NextGen cited a June 2015 poll that found that 73 percent of young voters want the United States to get 50 percent of its energy from renewable sources by 2030.The group has not yet announced which candidates it will endorse in the presidential or congressional races but said it has challenged all candidates to say how they would achieve a goal of hitting a 50 percent clean energy target by 2030.He said the air and water impacts of fracking, a controversial drilling technique that has been responsible for a boom in U.S. oil and natural gas production over the…