Google's new generation online communication tool is set to change the way we interact with each other on the web -- and, if Google's prediction is correct, it will even replace email as the way we communicate online. Is your company ready to catch the Google Wave?
Google announced its newest personal real-time communication and collaboration tool called "Google Wave" on May 27, 2009 at Google's web developer focussed I/O conference. This announcement is captured in the video posted here along with a fascinating demonstration of the power of Google Wave.
Google Wave is the brainchild of two Danish brothers, Lars and Jens Rasmussen, who first came to Google's attention when they had about $16 between them and a really great idea for an online map application. Google hired the brothers and their map application soon became the highly successful Google Maps.
Heralded as the new generation in online communication, Google Wave was initially released only to 100,000 developers who received much-coveted invitations to test drive the tool. It is still in limited preview, but on September 30th this year Google extended access to Google Wave to up to one million more users with the initial 100,000 being able to invite up to 20 additional users.
Mashable, the popular social media guide, calls Google Wave Google's biggest product launch in recent memory.
Just What IS A Google Wave?
So why is there so much excitement about Google Wave? Here's how Google's team describes it:
"A wave is equal parts conversation and document. People can communicate and work together with richly formatted text, photos, videos, maps, and more.
A wave is shared. Any participant can reply anywhere in the message, edit the content and add participants at any point in the process. Then playback lets anyone rewind the wave to see who said what and when.
A wave is live. With live transmission as you type, participants on a wave can have faster conversations, see edits and interact with extensions in real-time."
Mashable further explains:
"Google Wave has a lot of innovative features, but here are just a few:
- Real-time: In most instances, you can see what someone else is typing, character-by-character.
- Embeddability: Waves can be embedded on any blog or website.
- Applications and Extensions: Just like a Facebook application or an iGoogle gadget, developers can build their own apps within waves. They can be anything from bots to complex real-time games.
- Wiki functionality: Anything written within a Google Wave can be edited by anyone else, because all conversations within the platform are shared. Thus, you can correct information, append information, or add your own commentary within a developing conversation.
- Open source: The Google Wave code will be open source, to foster innovation and adoption amongst developers.
- Playback: You can playback any part of the wave to see what was said.
- Natural language: Google Wave can autocorrect your spelling, even going as far as knowing the difference between similar words, like "been" and "bean." It can also auto-translate on-the-fly.
- Drag-and-drop file sharing: No attachments; just drag your file and drop it inside Google Wave and everyone will have access.
While these are only a few of the many features of Google Wave, it's easy to see why people are extremely excited."
It may be some time before Google Wave is widely available to the public, but it is not too early learn more and consider how your company could potentially leverage this new generation online tool to better serve your customers and build your business.
Google Wave promises an unprecedented level of interaction, online collaboration and functionality that consumers - and your customers, will come to expect from vendor websites over time. It will become more imperative, therefore, that industrial supplier websites keep pace with the technology and online tools available and begin figuring out how to best deploy them.
If any of you have received one of those much sought-after invitations to preview Google Wave, please share what you think of it. Does it live up to its press? How do you think Google Wave can be best used to advance a business?
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5 Comments
I've been on Google Wave since launch, and the service is most certainly a game changer from a communications perspective. From an implementation perspective, the challenge with these "Cloud Technologies" stems from an information security perspective. Hosting data, conversations, or documents in this environment generates concern for the security of the data vs. it being stored on corporate owned servers.
In my opinion, this issue is merely one of perception. Our telephone conversations travel on telephone lines that are not owned by us, our mail travels with companies that are not owned by us. These have become trusted services. Very few people ever ask the question "But what happens to my telephone conversation if it is intercepted?", and hopefully, with time, the same will be true of services like Google Wave, and adoption will be a reasonable expectation at an enterprise level.
Michel, thanks for weighing in as a person who's actually tried Google Wave. I heard that those Google Wave preview invitations are actually being sold on E-Bay for $70 so you are indeed fortunate to have received an invitation!
The data security issue certainly will be one of concern to companies. I tend to agree with you, however, that it may be more one of perception since so much of what a company employee communicates, both "on and off the clock" is not moderated by their employer -- whether these communications are in emails, on the phone or at conferences. Google addresses how companies can use "server closets" to secure their communications on the Wave in their I/O conference video (1:09:16 mins - 1:10:01 mins)
Google Wave's actually touches upon the larger issue of why companies need to consider corporate policies that govern all their employee communications -- especially now that their employees are routinely engaged on social media sites and could potentially damage a company's reputation on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter etc. My post on Indium Corporation touches on this issue www.waterloo.com/blogs/marketingm/indiumcorp . Thanks for your comments!
Thanks for responding Sarah! The link that you included at the bottom of your comment is dead... I'd love to read more about your perspective on the topic of corporate policy and share mine! Hoping you can repost the link.
I appreciate your catching that, Michel. The correct link address is:
www.waterloomin.com/blogs/marketingm/indiumcorp
For more information on corporate social media policies, you can also see my personal blog at
http://sarahsturtevant.com/wordpress/resources
Just came across this Mashable blog entry about corporate use of Google Wave, and the fact that they've released Wave for sandbox development! Very exciting news!
http://mashable.com/2009/11/02/google-wave-federation/
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