Google Wave to Launch Public Beta Service by End of September

July 24, 2009 - 1:24 am | 3,858 views

Technology.am (July 24, 2009) — Google Wave, Google’s new real-time communication platform that will launch to the public on September 30. With Google Wave you can bring friends or business clients together to discuss topics of concern and share files at the same time.

Google Wave combines aspects of email, web chat, IM, wikis, social networking, and project management into a single browser communication client some expect it to eventually replace some of Google’s other applications.

You can easily share files by dragging-and-dropping them inside a Google Wave.

The Google Wave developer team is the same who had developed the Google Maps. Google Wave has a lot of innovative features. Some are as follows.

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.

You have to know the lingo used in Google Wave to fully understand the new communication platform. There are some basic terms used in Google Wave that are as follows.

Wave: This refers to a specific threaded conservation. It can include a single person or a group of users or even robots.

Wavelet: A wavelet is also a threaded conversation, but only a subset of a larger conversation. Wavelets can be created and managed separately from a wave.

Blip: This is smaller than a wavelet and is a single, individual message. Blips can have other blips attached to them, called children and can be published or unpublished.

Document: A document is content within a blip. It can contain characters, words, and files.

Extension: An extension is a mini-application that works inside a wave. These apps can be played while using the wave. The two main types of extensions are Gadgets and Robots.

Gadgets: A gadget is an application that users can use and many of which are built on Google’s OpenSocial platform. A good comparison would be iGoogle gadgets or Facebook applications.

Robots: They are automated participants within a wave. These participants can interact with users and waves. They can also provide information from outside sources or check content from within a wave and perform actions based on them.

Embeded Wave: An embeded wave is a way to take a Google Wave and the conversation within it and place it on your website. Users could use this as a chatroom, as a way to contact you, or for something more.

Further Reading