What is Google Wave?
Google has released their newest product Google Wave. Google is calling the Wave a collaboration and communication tool based on XML that supports concurrent modifications and updates. Google provides an hour and half video demo of the alpha version of Wave at http://wave.google.com.
It was released to a limited and select audience in September 2009 in a controlled beta test.
In this demo photo the Wave is using specially written gadgets to take a poll. This is one of the gadgets or extensions that has been written using their open source API.
The Wave runs through your browser but you will quickly forget you are using a browser.
The thought behind this application is a reinvention of email as if it had just been discovered today. Email is more than 40 years old, and it is a back and forth communication.
The Wave on the other hand is instant communication, email, document management and with extensions and what Google is calling The Federation, much more.
If the Wave is only used as plain vanilla email it still offers more than your standard email. Messages are delivered to your box if you are out but if you are there you can see what the sender is writing as they write it.
You can reply inside the message. You can add people to the wave as it grows. They will see the message as it is when they enter the conversation but there is a play back capability where they can recreate each step of the conversation.
So if you use the Wave for nothing else other than email and Instant message, you have already cut out one application that you do not have to use. The Wave will do both of these things in one app, on a browser or on your mobile device. But wait, there is more………
