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Google's Just-announced Google Wave may Swamp Microsoft
Update: On August 4, 2010, Google announced that it would be suspending development of Google Wave. The Wave website will be maintained for one year.
We don't normally feature news items here at Gizmo's Freeware but this announcement looks to be so important I'm prepared to make an exception.
Yesterday Google announced at its developer's conference a brand new product called Google Wave. It won't be available to the public for a few months but it looks like a real winner.
So what is it?
Well here's how they described it over at Mashable:
" ... a new in-browser communication and collaboration tool that is already being hailed by some as the next evolution of email ... the concept behind Google Wave is to “unify” communication on the web. It’s a hybrid of email, web chat, IM, and project management software. It features the ability to replay conversations because it records the entire sequence of communication, character by character. Because of this, discussions are also live in Google Wave: you will see your friends type character-by-character.
The features don’t stop there, either. Google Wave also supports the ability to drag attachments from your desktop into Google Wave. It loads that file and sends it immediately to anyone in the conversation. It’s also embeddable, so you can embed Google Wave conversations on any blog..."
It's hard to make a judgment without using the product but it strikes me as an inspired idea that fills a real need. It brings together in one place a whole series of disparate elements in a way that that will potentially change our way of working. Kind of like email for the FaceBook generation..
Will it take off? Well that fact that Google have made the API (and much of the app code) Open Source is really going to help. That's the sort of thing Microsoft would never do.
And if it takes off, it won't only be Microsoft who will be worried. Indeed the owners of MySpace, FaceBook and Twitter should really start thinking about some of those attractive purchase offers they have recently rejected.
Read the Mashable article here: http://mashable.com/2009/05/28/google-wave-guide/
YouTube Video: Google Wave Founding Team Interview
YouTube Video:Google Wave Introduction Screenshots (Turn sound off!)
This message has been posted at the YouTube link for this video: "This video has been removed by the user."
Gizmo
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Comments
Is anybody still investing some time to examine what is going on with Google Wave. Google stopped the development but the open source code still lives
www.waveprotocol.org
https://groups.google.com/group/wave-protocol
www.wavesandbox.com
All I have to say is remember Google wants to index the world with the underlying idea of making a profit off everyone's elses information by storing and indexing. Not necessarily a bad thing as long as they disclose this and its consequences to users prior to doing so, and not in small print. Not to mention give users the option to opt out as well as provide the user control over any and all information related to thst user that they have now, and continue to collect.
Feb 04
Google,Google,Google,If they ever make an Operating system I would be the First one to buy it. Vista - I rolled back to XP now Windows 7 ? I will wait like I should have done With Vista, But I am learning to Use Google wave and what a Great Experience it is. But not for Novices or the faint of Heart.
i got google wave it wasnt that hard. all i had to do was ask.
Yes I agree,the negative tone of many of these comments is most surprising, particularly for a technical site like this.
I suspect that they have been written by the same people who believe things like FaceBook and YouTube are just passing fads.
Gizmo I miss your newsletter. I understand why you gave it away but why not start a blog? There are simply not enough independent and uncorrupted voices like yours. Most commentators unfortunately either speak through their pocket or are derivative in their content.
You may not see it this way but you have an obligation here my friend - may I refer you to the parable of talents.
I agree too, Good Post...
i am replying to your coments about gizmos site .i feel the way that he displays his content and information is simple and very honest and he also takes into account many other people's view point . all of this gives you access to some excellent software for free which is so easy to find . to find gizmo just type in freeware to your google search and it should be on the first page . to put it simply the man is a legend in my opinion and i dont feel putting his name on twitter or my space will make a lot of difference to a well respected and hard working individual. yours a non computer geek.
I AM having a problem understanding the point of Twitter... at least for most users. (See the entertaining video at http://tinyurl.com/dmx2wg to more fully appreciate why.)
Wave has the potential to make a thing of the past such apps as Facebook... maybe even Youtube (though Wave would have to do things a bit differently than how it's now described to completely do that).
Just because something is new does not mean it should be embraced...
All Google would have to do with Wave is make the ability of others to see one's keystrokes as one is composing into a user-configurable option and my concerns about at least THAT will be, in an instant, ameliorated.
Trust me, once you get to the point of feeling compelled to explain that "it's a joke" or telling us how you mean "to come across" you'd be better off writing more coherently in the first place. Although we acknowledge that we perform a useful social service by allowing this kind of rant, please refrain from discussing anything but freeware. It's telling that you are the only poster who can find any ageism here.
Please note that excessively long posts will be edited for brevity. You are welcome to develop your thoughts at length in our Forum.
Most of the posts here are negative. The way I see it, yes, it would be an invasion of privacy, but thats the price to pay for having a hybrid model of communication such as this. This is the way forward and I think we should embrace that.
Having looked al this in depth I agree with you Gizmo. This is going to be big.
Ken K.
It sounds like all the people with negative things to say didn't even watch the video.
Privacy: They show in the video someone using google wave to run on their own personal server. Nothing is shared with google servers unless you include someone on the google server in the "conversation".
Facebook integration: I hate having so many accounts, and this allows you to interact with those people on the same platform. This way you can communicate how you prefer to, and they can communicate how they prefer to.
Keep it simple: A single interface is simpler.
Watching every keystroke: You can turn this off.
ANOYMOUS WROTE: "Watching every keystroke: You can turn this off."
DesELMS's RESPONSE: Excellent! I didn't see that in any of the articles. To the contrary, the interactiveness of it all seemed such a salient part of the the app (and critical to its effectiveness) in the various articles, that I assumed it was not user-configurable. I'm still not. But if, in the end, that is something which can be turned on or off, then much of my concern, just generallly, is abated.
nm, here is a more comprehensive video that will show those things.
http://wave.google.com
Sounds like Google is trying to be like Skype
Twitter and Facebook are for morons, this looks somewhat the same, just my opinion. I'm a business man who in many ways uses the internet frequently. I'm also a Chrome, Google Reader and Gmail user. As for 'Wave' you can keep it. Sorry, I still believe in "keep it simple, stupid". Simplicity is the name of my game...
Notice that this is being viewed in Google Chrome... Google has a message, I'm sure, and it's NOT "use Firefox" or "use IE" (Heaven forbid that anyway, Google or not)... just a VERY interesting sidenote...
Also, I kinda have to agree with DesElms. I habitually change 50% or so of my e-mails, IMs, etc. before I hit the "Send" button, and letting everybody else see what I'm doing is monumentally BAD. For crying out loud, I don't think we need a Big Brother service here. We can handle that ourselves, thank you...
And the guys who are protesting that we need some anonymity are dead-on. I can't help but wonder who's going to start using this thing as a weapon, especially with recorded sessions... that's all we need is the whole Internet following our every move and letting us have it when we step out of line.
Overall, the idea is good. The tracking: not good. The instant keystroke preview: definitely not good. Instant keystroke preview in recorded sessions???? Google, get serious. Who's going to go for that piece of nonsense??
Google, give us some peace and quiet and you can probably knock off MS, Facebook, Twitter and Heaven knows what else. We, as satisfied users, will help you. Give us spyware, and we'll knock you off. Sounds nasty? It's not supposed to, it's just the frustrated cry of a guy who has to run a daily virus scan to pick up all the nasties that things like web pages or even installed applications keep leaving on my computer... even MRU lists can be ugly, and now Google's going to track my keystrokes? Yeah, right. Think again, Google. You might be the search engine master, but you're going to lose that if you start hiding things in there...
Once again, I don't mean offense to anybody, this is just the frustration of a guy who knows a decent amount about internet security and still can't find peace from malware. Give us peace, Google, please give us peace from spyware...
Reading the first comments brings to mind two thoughts:
1. paranoia
2. The earth is flat and if you venture out, you will surely sail right off the edge.
No, IMHO I think you're wrong. The 1st poster and others who mention about anonymity or closed group is spot on. "He who have information, has power" even if we think that nothing will be gain from it, since we're just chit-chat with our friends, etc. Google, MS, Facebook and others realize that and already using it. They know how, which is why they're big. And rather than 'paranoia', let's call them 'conscious users'. The earth is not flat, but I only want to share with who I want.
first off, ive been checking this site every few days for updates. secondly, this new creation will invade privacy beyond belief.
It sounds as though it will contain a load of secret monitoring features.Even more than at present.
Agreed, many levels of anonymity are a MUST in communications. This may allow much larger security and privacy hassles, if it is widely adopted.
Googles thought process--- What can we do to make it easier for those who want to monitor all electronic communication? I know, let's try this.
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