Google Wave is in developer release with a general public release date
later in 2009. It is operational with a desire to have worldwide
developer input before the public release.
Google Wave is an open source communication and collaboration tool. It
has features similar to email, instant messaging, blogs, wikis and document
collaboration but all from a single application working
in real time. The user needs a Wave account and a
browser such as Chrome, Firefox or Safari that can load HTML 5 content.
Some advanced feature require Google Gears which can be loaded as a
browser extension. A wave can contain Rich Text, comments,
pictures and embedded object like You Tube video or Google Maps. All
wave participants work from a single real time copy of the wave.
Google Wave can perform the functions of email and instant messaging
but as one application. Users can be associated with a Wave and see it
grow in real time, contribute in real time or simply note which Waves
have changed as their Wave title changes to bold. Private messaging
within a Wave is possible to select participants. A new Wavelet
conversation can be spawned from the main wave with a new participant
list.
Pictures can be dragged from the desktop to a Wave. All watching
participant see a thumbnail view of the picture and then the full
picture. Picture/s can be selected and viewed larger in an advanced
slide show style from within the Wave web application.
Google Waves can be visible by human participants and also be embedded
into a website web page complete with real time content changes. Google
Wave account holders can create or edit a wave from either the web page
or using the Wave web application. When a web page is added to the
participant list a banner entry indicates the external association.
A wave can contain Rich document information including formatting.
Multiple Wave participants to a wave can edit the document in real time
or add comments anywhere in the main document. When a document is ready
then it can be exported without the comments. A change history of who
contributed and edited what is maintained with the wave.
Waves can be searched and searches can be saved. Multiple languages can
be used on the save Wave. Waves can be arranged in folders and have
tags associated with them for later searching. Hyper-links can be
dragged into a wave. Other Waves can be hyper-linked.
Google Wave has external real time both way interfaces with Twitter. Other interfaces could be designed over time.
Google Wave was created using the Google Web Toolkit with coding mainly
in Java with HTML, CSS, XML and other web format outputs.
Extensions can be created to work with Waves. Server side applications
can read messages and create changes in real time. New extensions can
be loaded from within a Wave.
Gadgets can be created for Google Wave. An example is a Google Map
button, highlight a document place word, press the Google Map button
and the map of the place is added including zoom functions.
A event gadget is a Yes No Maybe list where Wave participants drag
their name into a column. All participants have a real time view of the
lists.
Google Wave providers all follow the same communication protocols so that Wave users from
different providers can communicate seamlessly. As Wave is open source
you can become a Wave provider.
Can Google Wave replace several existing communication software type and improve productivity?
See Google Wave videos, download white papers and get notified of the
official public release launch date.