Google WAVE, The real-time communication platform in your web browser and on your phone

EMAIL, SMS, SOCIAL NETWORKING, SHARED MEDIA, PROJECT COLLABORATION VERSION CONTROL, WIKIS, WEB CHAT, EXTENDABILITY, and more ...

Google Wave is a real-time communication productivity tool that could be used for personal and business use, allowing communication and collaboration in a more natural and efficient way. It will certainly be improvement on the current system of send, wait, reply cycle we adopt.  All you need is an HTML5 compatible browser (which the crystal ball suggests will be the standard for all browsers in the near future).

Wave was thought-up by the brothers Jens and Lars Rasmussen and lead product manager Stephanie Hannon, all of whom were involved in the creation of Google Maps. Could this be Google’s biggest product launch in recent history? Quite Possibly!

Wave will be available to the public later this year but at present a carefully selected group of developers are beavering away with the available tool kits hopefully making full use of the toys Google have provided to allow customisation of Wave.

I don't want to keep you waiting so (drum roll) here is a screen shot of Google Wave!!! Impressed? From this image probably not but its potential is huge (see the launch video at the bottom of the article). 

Some more detail

Google Wave has a lot of innovative features, 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. Apps 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 step by step.

• Natural language: Google Wave has a very clever auto correct function for 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.

These are only a few of the many features of Google Wave and as it has been opened sourced I'm sure it will grow with amazing functionality and vary in its use. Google already have Wave running in the browsers of the iPhone and on Android which runs on the Google Phone so we'll soon be waving on mobiles too.

Is Wave the next step in the  communication revolution? Can we have a real time onine chat with friends and colleagues and accept the ability of people to interject just as you would in normal face to face conversion or meeting? Or will you never again be able to finish a sentence with out someone butting in? Maybe, but I still want to find out...
 

Terminology

The development team is based in Australia and I image they surf a bit. Surfing has it own lingo and so does Wave – do you see a connection here? I'm sure soon enough we all be catching a wave while surfing the net or catching a wave about going surfing then hopefully catching a wave... I could go on but I'll stop there.

Here is a brief list of wave lingo

• Wave: A wave, specifically, refers to a specific threaded conversation. It can include just one person, or it can include a group of users or even robots (explained below). The best comparison I can make is that it’s like your entire instant messaging (IM) history with someone. Anything you’ve ever discussed in a single chat or conversation is a wave.

• Wavelet: A wavelet is also a threaded conversation, but only a subset of a larger conversation (or a wave). It’s like a single IM conversation - a small part of a larger conversation and a larger history. Wavelets, though, can be created and managed separately from a wave.

• Blip (BLIP reviews): Even smaller than a Wavelet, a Blip is a single, individual message. It’s like a single line of an IM conversation. Blips can have other blips attached to them, called children. In addition, blips can either be published or unpublished (once again, it’s sort of like typing out an IM message but not yet sending it).

• Document: A document actually refers to the content within a blip. This seems to refer to the actual characters, words, and files associated with a blip.

• Extension: An extension is a mini-application that works within a wave. So these are the apps you can play with while using Wave. There are two main types of extensions: Gadgets and Robots

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

• Robots: Robots are an automated participant within a wave. They can talk with users and interact with waves. They can provide information from outside sources (i.e. Twitter (Twitter reviews)) or they can check content within a wave and perform actions based on them (i.e. provide you a stock quote if a stock name is mentioned).

• Embeded Wave: An embedded 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 chat room, as a way to contact you, or for something more.

Don't worry about getting down with the lingo straight away it will all become clear once you see it in action and get a chance to try it out yourself. If you are interested in updates about what you can sign up here 

his extracts of article are taken the complete guide by Ben Parr of Mashable

If your still not excited watch the video then let know if you have changed your mind. All comments welcome.

YouTube Video of the Google Wave Launch