Back in July of 2009 developers were given a sneak peak of one of the newest product offerings by Google, Google Wave. This new tool combines email, social networking, IMs (instant messages) and wikis into one real-time collaboration tool. The end result and how it will be utilized in the future depends upon how easy the tool is to use and what practical applications it can apply to.
The basics
Once you log into your Google Wave account, you are presented with four neatly layed out panels – Navigation (similar to an email account navigation box), Contacts (emails of your contacts who also have a Google Wave account), Inbox and the Wave box. To create a new Wave you simply click on the “New Wave” link and you’re off and running. The first thing to do upon creating your new Wave is to add contacts. When you’ve added the contacts you wish to be part of your Wave, you can then begin adding text, links, files, searches and gadgets.
One of the best parts of working with Google Wave is the ability to add gadgets. There are a list of pre-set gadgets that include a Google Map add-in, a video chat and a conferencing tool. You can opt to add in some more gadgets by searching for what is available at Google’s Gadget Gallery. The gallery includes games, more mapping capabilities and even an RSVP gadget.
You can also work with robots. These are basically email addresses you can add to your contact list and then add them to your wave to perform specific actions. One particularly handy robot is the Bloggy robot. This robot will publish your Wave into an online blog.
Usage
The main purpose of the Google Wave tool is collaboration. As such, the largest practical usage of this tool would be for business intrawebs and the like. The ability to conference real-time with the gadgets available makes for an excellent way to brainstorm and conduct “live” meetings with co-workers. Using the video chat gadget, text, links and file attachment capabilities, you have a great way to conglomerate tools that would normally require several different pieces of online technology.
Another great way to use this new product is for event planning. You can create a Wave with potential event participants while gathering feedback and responses on the fly. With the “Yes/No/Maybe” gadget you can have a live record of what the participants may want to bring to the event, dates and times that work for all and much more.
More uses for Google Wave can be determined by simply playing around with the tool. Co-operative blogging, real-time brainstorming, on the fly conferencing are just a few of the many usages of this new product.
Conclusion
As Google Wave is still in its beta testing stage, there has been a limit placed on the number of current participants (at last check 100,000). This makes it difficult to check out and test the product unless you know one of the other beta testers on board. To get around this for the time being, using one of the Wave robots could be a temporary solution. Once past the beta testing stage, it then becomes a matter of how many people will adopt this new piece of technology.
Google’s success rate has been rather high when introducing new tools – Google Maps, Gmail, Google Voice all well-received and highly used. The company’s past performances may be a good indicator on the future success of Google Wave.
October 28th, 2009 at 1:36 pm
I usually work with web-based applications like http://www.showdocument.com
I use it for sharing my designs and documents with partners and clients,
but i guess it can used for other purposes too. If you’re looking for a free solution you should check it out.
- Laura W.