Google Wave

Google introduces Google Wave.  What does it stand for?

..a bid to redefine the way people communicate on the Internet by blending e-mail, instant messaging, file sharing, and collaboration software into one service.

Mark Hachman of Pcmag has more details about this new invention:

What is Google Wave? Think of an open-source version of Gmail constructed via instant messaging. To start a wave, two users start what is essentially an instant-message session, which can be archived as a conversation. Other users can then be invited to join each wave or conversation, and there’s even a “playback” feature to track the process of the conversation. Google also said it intends Wave to be a platform as well as a protocol, with the appropriate tools and extensions for each.

In fact, it might not even be accurate to call it a reinvention of e-mail. Google executives tied the instant-message/e-mail model to real-time document collaboration, even search, and extended it to the Web and to blogs.

Not surprisingly, images can be attached easily. What’s fascinating, however, is that those images or embedable objects can also be Wave gadgets: for example, in a demo, a Google Map of Bora Bora was dropped into a wave. However, Rasmussen was able to manipluate the map in real time from his own screen, and the changes showed up dynamically on the screen of Stephanie Hannon, the project manager.

Real-time updates seem to be a critical element of Wave. Not only can conversations be updated in real time, but users who allow others access to their wave can allow those users the ability to update thier waves in real time.

Rasmussen displayed the design document overseeing Wave, which featured not only collaborative editing but also embedded conversations within Wave, an interesting tweak to the collaborative toos already inside Microsoft Office and other suites.

Want to publish a wave to a blog? No problem. A tool called “Bloggy” allows you to publish the entire wave, which can itself be updated like a normal wave.

Rasmussen and Hannon also said that the Google Wave model will be extended to Android for mobile updates. Integration with Firefox was also demonstrated as well.

The introduction of Google Wave got a good reviews from several quaters. Edward N. Albro of PCworld has this to say:

… it looks more like the kind of social network that I’d really like, one where I can exactly target the people with whom I want to share a comment, a photo, or a video.

One of the problems with Facebook is that most of the things you share through it go to everybody you have friended, whether those people are relatives, tennis buddies, coworkers, or your boss. But few people want to share everything with everyone they know. The stereotypical example, of course, is posting pictures of weekend debauchery and having your boss see them. But it’s not just a matter of being unintentionally embarrassed. Sometimes you come across a video you know your friends will love, but your mom and dad just won’t get the joke. Or you want to share a work-related link with professional colleagues, but know that your friends will be utterly bored with it.

Google Wave is still only a glimmer in Google engineers’ eyes; the company just made source code available to select developers today. (The service is based on HTML5, an open standard that Google made much of on the first day of Google IO.) But from the description and early screenshots of the service, it looks like something that could be perfect for sharing content with only the people you choose.