Google is set to release what many tech and web experts consider as the platform to end all web communication platforms. Think of all web communication platforms rolled into one. Think of the big wave to transverse on all frequencies. Think Google Wave.

Many people are excited about Google Wave because it will recreate how people communication and do business online. Google unarguably will revolutionize collaboration and communication through this platform. Even if the creators have imparted a few vague details about Google Wave, from the looks of it, Google is on a mission to bring communication to a much higher level. Google Wave brings together chat, email, photo editing and live collaborative editing into a single, simple and interactive interface.

Google Wave Defined

First off, what is this Google Wave and why is everyone so excited about its release? Since there are a lot of articles in the web today and you won’t probably have enough time to read them all, here is the summary. Google Wave is a platform for real time communication. Every communication aspect is combined here such as email, social networking, instant messages, chat, wikis and project management. This integration will be used for a sophisticated client for in browser communication. It will now be easy for you to tag along your whole group of friends or even your business partners so that you can discuss anything that has happened on that day and even share files with them without too much trouble. Now, Google, the company itself describes this “wave” as conversations and documents with equivalent parts.

Google Wave Features

Now a lot of people are wondering what is so special about this Google Wave. Obvious enough, it is from Google and you what they say, when it comes from Google it must good. Because of its several features, we are immediately curious about it. Now let us take a look at some of them. First it is real time. This allows you to view what other people are typing on their keyboards, character by character. Another feature is its ability to be embedded on any blog you have created or any website. There are virtually no limitations here. Now, when it comes to the applications and the extensions of Google Wave, they are very much comparable to Facebook or the popular iGoogle gadget. If you are one of those site developers, you can build and create your own applications within these waves. When we speak of applications here, these can be anything starting from bots to those complicated real time games.

Onto the Wiki functionality, this interesting feature emphasizes that Google Wave is shared. In this case, every detail written can be edited by everyone. This being said, you will be able to correct misinformation and even add up to what the others have provided in case they have missed something. As an option, you can insert your own commentaries based on the developing conversations. Developers are also very much appreciative because of the fact that Google Wave is open source. This fosters innovation and implementation. Another aspect that you will find useful is the playback feature, which allows you to review what other people have said earlier.

Natural language, on the other hand, is part of Google Wave, which corrects your spelling automatically. This even goes all the way to knowing the difference between congruent words such as bean and been. Also, this is able to translate words dynamically. Now, with email, you may have observed that you have to attach every single file that you have to send to your recipient. This is quite tiresome especially if you have a lot of files to send. Now with drag and drop file sharing, it is convenient for you to dispatch the files. Simply drag and drop within the Google Wave platform and each and every one will be able to gain access quickly.

These are just some of the features but as you can see, they are extremely remarkable that you may never help yourself in getting excited.

Who Created Google Wave?

Obviously it’s Google. But who did exactly? Originally, the Google team from Sydney, Australia was the one who first thought about this. Special mention goes out to two brothers namely Lars and Jens Rasmussen along with their project manager, Stephanie Hannon. These people were the same persons who were involved in the highly acclaimed Google Maps. Although the Google Wave product will not be released until later this year, there are a lot of people who are expecting that this will be a great program that will reinvent online communication. And for history freaks out there, Google Wave was officially announced during the I/O Developer conference on May 28, 2009.

Terminologies You Will Encounter

A lingo in itself, you will only understand what Google Wave is all about if you are able to take in what the terminologies being used mean. There are a few definitions that you have to learn so that you will grasp what Google Wave is all about and hopefully gain knowledge regarding this new project from Google.

Wave -  This refers to a particular threaded conversation. It does not matter here how many people are involved. You can safely say “I will wave you” soon enough without flagging grammar geeks. Actually, it can include only one person, groups or even robots. To make it simpler, you can take for example your entire instant messaging history with someone. Whatever you have discussed in a single conversation or a chat is considered as a wave.

Wavelet - Like “wave” this is a threaded conversation as well but this is only a part of the wave or a larger conversation. This is like a single instant messaging conversation, which is a small part of a bigger chat and history. Although they are a fraction of the wave, they can be managed and created separately from the main one. With blips, they are smaller than wavelets so this means that they are a single and individual message. They are like a single line of a conversation from your IM. These blips can have others linked to them and these are called children. Additionally, you can choose whether you would go for a published or unpublished a blip. It is sort of like you will type a message and then change your mind so you did not send it. In line with this, the content inside the blip is known as a document. Seemingly they refer to the words or characters or the files that have something to do with the blip.

Wave Extensions -  These are small applications that functions inside the wave. Thus, they are what you can play with while you are engaged in a wave. There are two types of these. The first one is a gadget wherein you will be able to participate in. Many of such are created based on the OpenSocial platform from Google. For those who still find this quite unclear, you can compare them to the applications on Facebook and the iGoogle gadgets. Meanwhile, robots are the automated participants in a wave. They are able to chat with other people and interrelate with waves. They also have the ability to provide outside information from a wide variety of sources such as Twitter. Besides that, they check the contents that are included in the wave and based on those examinations they will be able to perform some actions. For example, there is a mention of stock name these robots will provide a stock quote for you.

Embedded Wave - This is the method that you will do so that you can take the Google Wave along with the conversation and then put them in a blog or a website. Once done, other users will be able to utilize this like a chatroom. This is now their way to contact you or communicate with you.

An Overview on Google Wave Gadgets

As previously mentioned, a gadget is half of the types of wave extensions. One thing that you will like about these is that they are applications that are fully functional. According to Google, they are responsible for changing the appearance and feel of these waves though this is just the tip of the iceberg.

Now, with Google Wave, absolutely any OpenSocial or iGoogle gadget will be able to run here. So when you think about it, this means that Google Wave has been successfully created since it is able to support a lot of applications already. Another fact about gadgets is that when they are built within the wave, they can fully take advantage of interactions in real time with multiple users. For you to understand clearly, you can think of this s an online game with users that are participating actively. Hence, it is similar to your Myspace and Facebook applications which take a chance on your growing friend network to build games, make quizzes and create applications as well so that you will generate a more meaningful and more valuable application.

Gadgets are exclusive to individual waves and not on the users and this is what makes them different to your social network applications on your profile. A gadget then belongs to everyone who is included in the wave. Also, they do not possess titles so that they can easily associate to the whole conversation. Examples of gadgets that are already built within the Google Wave are Sudoku, Bidder, which converts the wave into some kind of an auction and then the Maps gadget. The latter allows you to collaborate with Google Maps.

Understanding Google Wave Robots

As you have reads, this is the other form of extensions in Google Wave. Here, you can compare them to the sense of having another person in the conversation. The significant point here is that they are automated. They are pretty much like the instant messaging robots in the early stages of technology but of course they are far more forceful. These robots have the ability to modify the information in conversations. In addition to that, they can interact with the users, pull information from other sources and correspond with other waves.

Because these robots behave like they are ordinary users, you can definitely define their acts based on what is happening in the chat. You can create one that goes like “modify the word cat to rat.” It can be as simple as that or you may choose to build one that is as complex as a debugger. With these abilities, it is no wonder that we will be able to see some really advanced robots in the near future.

Robots that are available include Stocky, which brings out stock prices whenever there is a mention of a stock quote, Debuggy and Tweety, which is designed to display the tweets within the wave.

Google Wave Embed

If you have a Youtube account, you are well informed about embedding a video into your blog. However, Doogle Wave embed, it is a little more complex than that. Still, this is what Google Wave Embedding is all about: to bring forth waves or conversations into a third party website. Embedded Waves are excellent because they support several functions that are included in the definite Google Wave client. This includes the dropping and dragging of files feature.

Even though the Wave Embeds is still young, Google has already produced two that is to say the Multiple Extensions Embed and the Youtube Playlist Discuss, which lets you converse about a video through a wave. In the meantime, the former tolerates interaction with numerous waves on one page alone.

Evidently, Google has once again showcased how apt their team is. With this new brainchild, they will continue to outdo their competitions. Some believe that Google Wave is the next trend for social media while others doubt the security and the confidentiality of the information they have provided. Given that this is plugged into your Twitter, Myspace accounts or blogs, it seems like Google owns everything that is published on the Internet via this new communication platform. No matter what other people may believe in, there are still countless individuals and groups who are waiting for the release of Google Wave, that includes us. Let us stay positive about this progression, until then, just be ready to Wave.