Google Wave is the latest largely hyped product launch that came out of the Google garage. Developed by Jens and Lars Rasmussen, the brains behind Google Maps, who went to Austria for project Walkabout and came back with Google Wave. We get a picture of the origins of the terminology now, but here is the official story.
What is Google Wave then?
Google Wave Logo
Well for now it’s a collaboration tool that incorporates most forms of online communication to date (e.g., email, chat, instant msg) with offline ways of getting a message across (e.g., presentations, conferences and simple conversations). Google Wave is live, real time, and has a beautiful playback feature just in case you missed out on parts.
It is intended to be completely open source, and developers are encouraged to start building APIs and gadgets around wave to make it their own. Good move by Google for not trying to strong-arm their technology on the net, but instead allowing Wave to evolve.
What can Google Wave do?
Google states, “A wave is equal parts conversation and document. People can communicate and work together with richly formatted text, photos, videos, maps, and more.”
We say Wave simply allows you to:
- Chat, instant msg and email in real time
- Share, publish and collaboratively work on documents
- Store conversations, thoughts, work and track changes and developments
- Instantly share files, create photo albums and post video clips
- Propose event invitations, add Google Map locations and poll whether your guests prefer burgers or tuna sandwiches
- and Wave will do much much more, if not now than soon
Google Wave Screenshot with Yes/No/Maybe and Google Maps APIs
Google Wave Invitations?
Wave is currently still in its baby development shoes, but Google has given out a few 100,000 developer invites and have opened the floodgates for a select community of Wave enthusiasts last week as they realized that a social communication tool is no fun without being social (e.g., having people to talk to). For further updates check Gartners hype cycle explanation on GadgetGybe.com
Every new invitee receives eight invitations to spread the word to his/her collaborators and friends. This lets us assume that Google feels comfortable that their servers are capable of handling the traffic, bandwidth and storage requirements of the ‘New Wavers’ arriving daily. However, while testing we’ve seen browsers crash trying to playback large waves. Baby steps are still recommended…
Testing Wave will now become much more effective, and we can try to get a glimpse of what this type of communication could transform into. Let’s all shape the future of Wave. Enjoy and spread the love!
If you need a Google Wave invitation either leave a comment, email me or get in touch via Twitter
Additional Links:
Google Wave presentation at Google IO (if you fancy the 120 minute presentation at Google IO)
Google Wave Hompage
Official Google Blog
