Wave was created by the two Scandinavian lads (from australia) that brought us google maps (lars and hans or something like that). The idea behind the service is, what would our communications look like if we did not base them on 40 year old email and IM technology (scary to think that both have been around for so long).
Anyone who has had had to email multiple people at work or for school know how frustrating it can be to email 10 people at once, add another person to the list later, respond to different emails sent back to them. In one day at work I can have 40 some emails jostling about for one subject while I try to do something stellarly fun like set up a meeting or something (this is all made even more fun by using Microsoft Entourage or Outlook depending on the poison I feel like atm). Ad a couple of IM convos to the mix for the same meeting and everyone can get really really nice and confused after what is going on. Wave puts a well timed end to this.
Rather than send countless emails with the copies of old emails merged into them google keeps EVERY part of a convo on its serve as one WAVE. This can include email type, IM, Picture sharing, blog sharing, google doc sharing/editing. Its all there and it is all in a hierarchal list form that lets everything appear seamlessly in relationship to each other. One can even go back and respond to different parts of an email, its posted real time and other viewers of the wave can see a playback version of the conversation from start to present. Really this is hard to describe and I recommend watching the first 20 minutes of googles video to just begin to appreciate the real possibilities that exist here.
It might at first be slightly limited as I am assuming everyone will have to be on google to do it but the cool kids that I keep company with all have accounts. So I do not see this as a problem. Why will this KILL gmail though you ask? Simple, html5. For the last several months I have been primarily using mobile me to access my email, contacts etc from abroad. Now this service, as numerous writers have pointed out before has some serious limitations however, the way I seamlessly mimics a desktop environment is stunning. With the same drag and drop interactions from a new google architecture (certain to be at least more function than mobile me was when it started) and you begin to see why this will really change the playing field over gmail. These wave conversations are real time and i mean real time. You literally see each word as the other person writes it, you literally see the thumbnails for pictures as they are dropped into it etc. It is like working with a google doc under collaboration, but in the real time capacity that it should have had from teh start. And now, everything you do will be one fluid exchange of information between yourself and others. This really will change the game now that google has the user base to allow people to switch over almost immediately with their friends and coworkers. I am assuming some form of legacy email will be integrated into it for dealing with "other people" (not the cool kids).
I have just been surprised that, after talking to several of my friends it has become apparent to me that not very many of them know what is coming later this year when it is released and I wanted to get this out there for them to see and plan. You may have noticed that this is posted again to google Blogger. That is because I see where Wave will integrate into that in the next couple of months and I must say it is tempting. That combined with google backing this up every 30 seconds really has me beholding to them atm =). I really hate typing things out again and if this means i don't have to do that then al the better. Not sure what will happen to Matrims Secret Bunker but I will keep you informed. So yes, sorry for all the repeat articles that are going to pop into your RSS feed reader.
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