Google Wave
 | |
| Developer(s) | |
|---|---|
| Repository | none |
| Platform | Cross-Platform |
| License | Open standard |
| Website | http://wave.google.com/ |
Google Wave is a project announced by Google at the Google I/O conference, on 28 May 2009.[1] It is a web based service and computing platform designed to merge e-mail, instant messaging, wiki, and social networking.[2] It has a strong collaborative and real-time[3] focus supported by robust spelling/grammar checking, automated translation between 40 languages[1], and numerous other extensions.[3] It is expected to be released later in 2009.[1]
Name
The name is inspired by the Firefly television series in which a "Wave" is a video call. During the developer preview a number of references were made to the series, such as Lars Rasmussen replying to a message with "shiny", a word commonly used in the series to mean "cool", and Stephanie Hannon repeating a popular quote from the series ("Curse your sudden but inevitable betrayal").[1]
Product
Google Wave is supposed to be an answer to the question "what if email were designed today?". It makes use of "waves", threaded multimedia conversations. They can be used like email or forum, not only replying to messages but even specific paragraphs within. Working in real-time, all participants in wave can observe another's input letter by letter, allowing it to work as instant messaging. Multiple users can, also, edit the same content in a wave allowing wiki-style collaborative document work to be performed. It's the same editing features that allows the spellchecker, a bot, (or other participants for that matter) to make spelling/grammatical changes and suggestions. All of the wave's edit history is recorded and Google Wave notifies all other participants of any modifications and by whom. It also provides history play-back so, if necessary, users can catch up on a conversation in proper order (as the flow may not be apparent) or search through & modify specific edits.[2][3]
Google Wave was created using the Google Web Toolkit and is currently still in development. It is expected to be so until later this year.[1] Google Wave is currently available in a developer preview, for sandbox access.
Open Source
Google announced that they plan to open source the majority of the source code,[1] allowing the public to develop its features through extensions.[1] Additionally, allowing third-parties to build their own wave services as quickly as possible (be it private or commercial) due to the fact they that they want the wave protocol to replace the 40 year old email protocol.
Spellchecker
An automated spellchecker bot, making use of the collaborative editing features,[1] autocorrects common typos and provides dropdown suggestions for others based on spelling and grammatical [algorithm|models]. During the demonstration, the spellchecker corrected several grammatical errors (such as using "bean" instead of "been").[1]
API
Google is building APIs that allow developers to use and build on Google Wave by way of:
- "Extensions", program robot to automate common tasks and/or build gadgets to extend or change user interaction (i.e. posting blips on twitter feeds or providing RSVP recording mechanisms).[1][4][2]
The APIs and associated application are still in development and are actively continuing to evolve.
Protocol
Google announced that the service will feature an open protocol, Google Wave Federation Protocol, that can be used to build a "custom Wave system".[5][1] The use of an open protocol is intended to parallel the openness and ease of adoption of the email protocol so waves may succeed email, as the dominant form of Internet communication.
References
External links
- Official site
- About Google Wave
- official Google Wave developer blog
- Article from InformationWeek
- Full Video of the Developer Preview at Google IO (80mins) on YouTube
- Unofficial Google Wave Blog
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