Surf's up! Here comes the Wave
Surf's up! It's Google Wave
Google Wave is an amazing innovation that got the world buzzing when it was first unveiled at the Google I/O developer conference back in May 2009. With Wave, Google has developed its version of what they believe to be the future standard for communicating online.
The developers of Wave explain the product in full detail here.
Unlike email
In Google’s on words, Wave is “what email would look like if it were invented today.” Rather than relay multiple copies of the same message, Wave hosts a single copy of the entire conversation where participants can read, edit and add content on their own. Each participant of the Wave receives the latest version of the conversation in real-time and can see updates to the Wave as it happens – keystroke by keystroke!
Wave supports multiple editors and writers and participants can be added progressively as the Wave develops. Using the Playback feature, new participants can catch up on the conversation and see step-by-step updates from when the Wave was first created right up to its current state.
There are also lots of rich content features such as embedding maps, slideshows and videos directly into the Wave, which gives users a much better experience compared to plain text email. Communicating with speakers of other languages is no longer a hassle as Wave translates 40 international languages on-the-fly!
And perhaps most promising is the ability to embed web applications into the Wave that allow its functionality to be extended to beyond that of just a conversation. For example, an app designed to work with Blogger allows participants to create photo albums and add comments on the site in real-time, without ever having to leave Wave. Users can also participate in polls or multiplayer games within the Wave, thus enhancing its overall value as a social media platform.
Open source
Like email, Wave is a protocol, supported by a server and a client. The Wave protocol is a free and open standard, created by (but not proprietary to) Google, and software developers are encouraged to create cool and useful extensions using its API.
According to Google, all content on Wave is not centralized on Google’s servers but are instead hosted on Wave servers in different locations (similar to how email servers are hosted by your preferred service provider) However, instead of sending messages back and forth between email servers, Wave servers will be able to communicate with each other to keep Waves synchronized; something that Google calls the “Federation”.
The Wave of the future
There’s no doubt that goal of Wave is to transform the way we’re used to communicating online into a more efficient and collaborative experience. However, it remains to be seen whether Wave will catch on with the general Internet population. Many early Wave users have found the experience confusing at first; the hosted conversation model is a foreign concept to many people. Nevertheless, Google has set the mark for the future of Web communications using a unified and open platform. We really can’t help but imagine how much more productive the world would be with Wave.
