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You may have heard about the latest big thing in email, Google Wave. What is the fuss all about, and what will it offer businesses?
If you have time, check out either the ten minute video summary or the full overview (1 hour 20 minutes) from the Google site.
Real Time Collaboration
Google Wave is both a communication and collaboration system. Messages, instead of being emails, are called "Waves" and do much more than simple contain text. Instead, a Wave is more like a combination of email and interactive document. All participants can edit the Wave, and it can contain embedded media. The sequence of edits is stored and can be replayed, and it's even possible to have multiple edits happening in real time.
Website Embedding
Rather than simply existing within the Wave interface, Waves can be embedded into web pages and blogs, and edits can be done on the page itself. This functionality could offer wiki style page edits on your site (among authorised users), which could make it easier to keep a website information current.
Text Correction and Translation
In-context spelling correction not only offers spelling correction, but suggests words based on the context of the sentence.
It also seems that the system can offer a babelfish-like ability to type in your native language while simultaneously displaying the text in a foreign language. This could be an incredible tool for communicating with international clients.
Drag and Drop Files Sharing
While conversing or collaborating on a Wave, you can drag and drop images and other media into the document.
Custom Applications
As the system is open source, it includes an API for developers to create their own plugins. Expect to see a wide variety of tools to expand and add to the Wave experience.
Register for an invite
As the system is currently in a closed beta state, you can request an invite here. (Thanks to Mike Holding for the link)
Endless possibilities
With the system being open source and offering a good platform for developers, the possibilities for Google Wave are endless. Would this online collaboration be useful for your organisation? Hit the comments below with ideas!
21:13, 11.10.2009
WOW! I LOVE the current Google suite as it is, but Wave just sounds UBER exciting. Thanks for sharing the link, Donovan. I’ve asked for an invite already!
11:05, 18.10.2009
Just got a wave account. This must be what a felt like for the first people with fax machines. No one to talk to.
If anyone wants to play I’m on roddrurynz@googlewave.com
Can’t see how you get a better wave address but I’m sure it will be tied into domains at some point.
15:27, 19.10.2009
WELL… as soon as I actually GET my invite from Google I’ll let you know…
16:31, 19.10.2009
my wave acct is tikotex@googlewave.com – interested in emerging and disruptive technologies – cheers
07:46, 24.10.2009
Eventually you will be able to run your own Wave servers in the same way as you can e-mail servers so it will definitely be tied to domain names in the future. This will enable companies to keep their waves private should they so wish while allow outside connections.
Currently there is only an alpha python based server available (not from google). I have had a bit of a play with their online demo of it but currently it is very, very basic. I’m going to wait for a while before trying to install and run it. http://code.google.com/p/pygowave-server/
I’m really waiting for Google to release/open source their code which they will be doing at some stage.
Also waiting for some really good gadgets to be developed. They are a bit thin on the ground at the moment.
thrashcardiom@googlewave.com
17:48, 30.11.2009
THE MOGUL LADS ALL HAVE WAVE! FINALLY!!!!!
18:03, 30.11.2009
I have some Google Wave invites if anyone’s interested, DM me on twitter @serendipitynz
19:42, 30.11.2009
Extensions will make a big difference as they get built.
Tweety one neat. will be better once it’s got the ability to show search. As-is would work for company tweets, like coTweet.
http://mashable.com/2009/05/28/twave/
btw, I’m on at locallyinformed@googlewave.com
21:38, 30.11.2009
For anyone using a Mac, there’s an unoffical Wave notifier available (similar to the Gmail notifier) http://blog.yakitara.com/2009/10/unofficial-google-wave-notifier-for-mac.html Seems to work ok.
21:59, 30.11.2009
What’s a Mac?
04:49, 01.12.2009
Rod, how are you finding Wave now? You didn’t seem too impressed a month or so back.
07:55, 01.12.2009
Don’t use it. I find it too hard, too noisey and too much of an investment.
It’s really fascinating as it should be great.
Is anyone here using Wave in anger? I’d much prefer that email evolved towards Wave.
I am finding that the combination of Email + Yammer is working really well for us at Xero.
10:23, 01.12.2009
We have used it to collaborate with our designer on a small website. It worked very well for this. Nice having entire conversations, graphics etc, all in one place and to be able to go over things easily.
I have had quite a few conversations with various groups around the world. For me Wave works better with only a few people in the actual Wave. Once numbers start getting up it can bog down a bit. Also, having people adding gadgets and robots all the time gets a bit frustrating. However, I see the numbers as being a fairly minor issue that should change as wave servers begin to proliferate and the gadget/robot issue will change once clients with good wave management built in become available.
Keeping blips linear also helps.