Technological advances come so quickly that we often do not have the time to process what happened before new technologies emerge. So while we look forward to the arrival of 2018 and its news, we leave a summary of what marked technology in 2017.

We opened doors for artificial intelligence with voice-activated virtual assistants, now much more advanced than the first version launched by Amazon in 2014, Echo.

Google has entered the race with Google Home, a voice-activated virtual assistant that functions as a personal assistant. Google Home identifies the voices of all family members and helps them by answering questions, giving updates about the weather, the stock market, in short, anything they want to know. Apple has also released its version, the HomePod, which uses Siri assistant software.

Machines also dominated 2017: this year, Google's AlphaGo program beat KeJie, No. 1 in the Go board game world ranking at Future of Go Summit.

In 2017, we also saw the first humanoid robot to become a citizen of a country, in this case Saudi Arabia. Sofia was present and was one of the highlights of the 2017 Web Summit in Lisbon, where artificial intelligence and robot-related challenges were central to the discussion.

This year we also got to know the new Iphone X, which instead of using a button to unlock the phone - or the fingerprint reader - has a facial recognition system (Face ID).

In terms of safety, it was a remarkable year. On May 12, 2017, the Wannacry computer attack hit more than 230,000 computers in more than 150 countries worldwide. Major companies such as the British National Health Service, Spain's Telefonica and Deutsche Bahn have been hit along with many other companies around the world. In the US, the attack on the portals of Equifax, a US credit agency, was also highlighted. Due to a failure to fix a software vulnerability, the personal information of more than 145 million consumers has been disclosed. These data included Social Security numbers, birthdates and driving license numbers.

Technology platforms have a major impact on today's society and one of these impacts, seen as negative by experts, is the loss of network neutrality in the United States of America. Network neutrality is the guiding principle of the Internet, but from now on in the US, companies will be able to block content that does not interest them and "filter" the information that reaches the users of those platforms.

In the field of mobile marketing, searches on mobile devices have surpassed desktop searches. 79% of people now use their smartphone to read e-mails - a percentage higher than those who use it to make calls (source: Email Monday)

Finally, companies are investing more than ever in mobile advertising, which means that those who want to be competitive must have a mobile-optimized website and a digital marketing strategy targeted at users using those devices.

2017 has been a year filled with news in all areas of technology and the data presented here is a minimal slice of the many technological advances that have been made to improve and make life easier for people. Now, it's time to wait for the innovations of 2018.