Exit9

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Holy cow! Out of all the latest and “greatest” launches this one seems to be huge (I know it hasn’t “officially” launched but still). Now, this is yet another PR stunt by Google to squash it’s competition (Google launches this new product, the same day Microsoft announces Bing as it’s new search engine, etc).

I’m not a blind Google lover but this seems very remarkable. It’s another level of web apps that we’ve never seen before. Some say it’s the current/new form of email.

We’ve highlighted the features based on the Keynote on May 28th, 2009 (also added timestamps within the [ ] brackets). Also, please note this is in HTML 5! Nothing fancy, other than the new HTML that is coming out! Wow! (The new HTML is fancy though, this showcases how powerful the new HTML 5 is.)

Highlight of it’s features

(from Keynote at I/O 2009)
- [8:00-8:30] Dynamic spell checker (without clicking spell check, it automatically checks spelling; video about semi-technical explanation about this feature).
- [10:19-12:08] Live replies (character by character (or you can choose to hide your live reply, if your a bad speller or need more thought behind your replies); semi-technical video [0.00-3:53] on “how” they do this)
- [12:08-14:35] If additional parties join email conversation and there is a ‘playback’ feature where it allows them to view the context of the conversation. ([3:53-6:55], for some more info)
- [14:35-15:25] Then your able to ‘private reply’ (similar to twitter dm or 1 to 1 email message).
- [15:25-16:35] Images show as thumbnails first to recipient but then almost instantaneous fully load on the receivers side. (But you need Google Gears for this).
- [16:35-18:08] Can easily make photo albums based off of attachments and then share with the rest of the contacts.
- [18:20-19:50;20:40-22:12] Adding “Bloggy” to the conversation, posts the conversation (images, text, etc). But it’s deeper than that, Wave embeds the “Wave Code” into the blog post and allows people to directly comment on the Wave. The person can then use the Wave Client to add an additional client and the blog will dynamically refresh the comment and/or the person can check his/her comment within the Wave Client (like if person A posts something, person B can respond in the blog Wave. Then person A can respond in Wave Client, which will show up on the blog, then person B can respond in his/her Wave Client.)
- [22:13-23:15] Can manage comments via Wave
- [23:16-25:10] Can manage contacts via Wave and can embed in Orkut (Google’s social media site).
- [25:40-26:45] Can reply via mobile phones.
- [26:46-31:28] Editing: Happens live on blog, allows others contribute to the Wave (shows others the edits, soon they will have “x person edited the message” but not available), if another joins, they don’t see the edits (unless they use the fancy playback feature) but they see who contributes to the Wave).
- [31:28-34:44] Collaborative: Playback works for even non-text waves , can hide and show comments, you have multiples waves under a head wave (like a way to manage projects).
- [35:50-37:14] Multiple live edits: When 2 or more people edit the same Wave.
- [37:14-37:47] Supports Hebrew and International Languages

Google Web Toolkit; It allows you to code a document in Java and it will translate it to HTML 5. This is the 100% basis for Google Wave.

- [40:35-41:42] Organize Waves: Tag, Folders, Saved Searches, Links to other waves, Drag and Drop Waves
- [41:48-43:15] Searching Waves: Live results (if a person creates a new related, it will show up live).
- [43:27-48:30] Supports extensions: Similar to Firefox plugins. Spelly; suggestion for spell check and it’s AI [artificial intelligence] makes live corrections. Linky; makes links when you type a link. Searchy; can search for images/waves and easily attach them to a wave.
- [49:06-51:35] Yes/No/Maybe Gagdet: Live changes to RSVP events.
- [51:35-54:50] Can play games with playback: Sudoku, Chess, Maps, Videos
- [54:50-57:35] A template form for Polls: Live updates/results
- [57:35-1:01:50] Supports Twitter (Twave); Also can use Buggy which would have alerts on Twitter delivered to your inbox.
- [1:01:50-1:05:02] Bug/Issue Tracker

The next (7 minutes) is talking about how someone else can make a competitive Wave and how both are fluid (like you can easily send and receive things). Basically like how Gmail can email to a Hotmail client, the framework behind it is email protocol but in this case Wave is the underlying protocol.

The last part is something I’ve heard from Eric Schmidt about 3 months ago, in an Interview with Charlie Rose. Live translations. Rosy is the name of the gadget. If you type in x language and someone receiving it knows y language, Rosy will translate it for the receiver.

In Summary, it’s a mash-up of all communication on the web. Email + blog commenting + forum commenting + Facebook/Myspace (Social Media) messages + Instant Messaging = Google Wave. The nice thing about Google Wave is that it’s Open Source, so companies and create custom solutions for users/companies.

Our Criticism: At first, I was worried that Google would use this technology to monitor users, in a “Big Brother” way. So, I asked Matt Cutts (on Twitter) and he said that this isn’t the case. (I tried to find the tweets but I guess Twitter doesn’t keep all the tweets… . ) He said it’s Open Protocol.

In addition, if a company is dependent upon another (framework, or the like, in this cause framework) it can be dangerous to the company that is dependent. Dangerous meaning, in this case, Google might stop developing Google Wave and if you can’t scale your product/service on your own, then you’ll be out of luck as your product/service grows.

Finally, I’ve included a bunch of links I thought were valuable reads. Happy reading about this innovative solution.

Healthy Criticism:
5 Reasons to be Terrified of Google Wave (by Fast Company)
Why We Are Cautious About Google’s Wave (by Gigaom)

External Highlights of Wave:
The Complete Guide (by Mashable)
New Tool (By NyTimes)
What Might Email Look Like If It Were Invented Today? (by O’Reilly)
A New Communication Platform For A New Web (by Tech Crunch)
Exclusive: Video Interview With The Google Wave Founders (by Tech Crunch)
Sergey Brin: Google Wave Will Set A New Benchmark For Interactivity (by Tech Crunch)
Introducing the Google Wave APIs: what can you build? (by Google)
Official Announcement of Google Wave (by Google)
Google Wave for Dummies (by WAT Blog) [Similar to our overview but written in a different format.]