Google is in the process of developing a new communication tool called Google Wave, which will help users to better collaborate and communicate with each other.
It is expected to be ready for release later this year, and can be accessed at:
This new tool has been developed by the same sibling team, who have developed the immensely popular and useful Google Maps.
Google Wave will be a new model of communication which will have the combined features of various communication methods like email, chat-lines, instant messaging etc.
This new project was initially codenamed ‘Walkabout’. The team started out with a set of questions that they hoped to solve. The questions were:
- Why is it necessary to divide the various forms of communication such as email, documents, instant messaging etc?
- Would it be possible to combine most of the communication methods available into one simple format?
- Could they design a communication model which would take advantage of the current abilities of computers?
The Wave will allow users to communicate and collaborate with each other using various formats such as text, videos, photos, maps etc. all at the same time.
A user first creates a wave and then adds people to it. All the users on the wave can communicate, using the different forms of communication available on the web. Users can insert replies or edit the wave and other users will see this almost instantaneously. Users can also store this communication or use ‘Playback’ to see how the wave developed.
Google wave will be an open source entity, to enable developers to make additions to the Wave before the public launch.
The Google Wave product is an HTML 5 application built on the Google Web Toolkit having a rich text editor and other functions such as ‘drag and drop’.
Google Wave is also a platform with open API’s to allow developers to use waves and other web services and make new extensions in the wave.
The Google Wave protocol is an underlying format to store the communication and as a means of sharing the waves.
Now after working on the Wave for two years the team has set up a prototype and is releasing it on an experimental basis to get feedback from users and developers before the public release.
The demo video seen below shows how Google Wave could become an extremely powerful medium of communication.
