Google recently announced its plans on a product that would cater to communication and a collaborative tool called Google Wave. Coming from the Google ‘House’ the tool appears to have an imprint of simplicity and novelty!
Yet to be released, it would have features that would combine aspects pertaining to communication such as online chatting with colleagues and friends while working on documents simultaneously.
The tool suggests that the entire thing would be happening in real-time which implies that whatever correction or editing to the text would be done, would be reflected in real-time. Sounds good so far. Also, the individuals using the tool would be to make changes or write in the document wherever they wish ( sounds a little borrowed from Microsoft’s OneNote)!
Users can add people during a conversation at any point. And to avoid any kind of confusion that prevails regarding the thread of the conversation, the tool provides a playback option that would recapitulate the conversation with the concerned individuals, now that is new!! So, looks like a combination of Orkut, Picasa, and communication knit together in real-time.
Apart from this feature, the tool has two more aspects – for developers, it provides them the option to contribute to the wave by building robot extensions (or in plain terms write programs) which would improve the tool. It gives the option to embed waves into your own site (using Javascript) which would in turn make the wave more collaborative.
The tool is open-source which would mean free for use. So, something on the lines of say a Twitter (which the company has already worked upon) could be plugged on your page. This feature may be on similar lines to Facebook where you can have your set of features like games etc on your page.
Google ‘Wave’ as the name of the tool sums it up that there are several of them, and all can be put together to make a larger wave. This tool would extend Google’s efforts in collaboration and communication space as it has already come up with Google Apps that have messaging and collaboration for offices.
So, this tool would be for the end-user/individual space and would help Google get into this territory also. Google has now tools that cater to different spheres and userbase. Google Analytics, Trends, Site Search, and Website Optimizer cater to websites. Google Apps, Enterprise Search Solution Checkout, and Local Business Center would be for enterprises while Google Wave & other offerings from Google labs would be for individuals.
