/dq/media/agency_attachments/UPxQAOdkwhCk8EYzqyvs.png)
Follow Us
of discussion on all social networking and blogging sites with
requests for invitation are flowing in. GoogleWave is a brainchild of
two brothers Jens Rasmussen and Lars Rasmussen, co-founders of a
Sydney-based company called Where 2 Technologies which was acquired
by Google in October 2004. Incidentally, this was the team which also
created Google Maps. GoogleWave builds on the concepts of AJAX. The
idea behind Wave is to make it an ultimate collaboration tool where
users can use social networking, mail, wikis and instant messaging in
single integrated browser-based client.
Google officially
describes it as “
wave is equal parts conversation and document. People can communicate
and work together with richly formatted text, photos, videos, maps,
and more. A wave is shared. Any participant can reply anywhere in the
message, edit the content and add participants at any point in the
process. Then playback lets anyone rewind the wave to see who said
what and when. A wave is live. With live transmission as you type,
participants on a wave can have faster conversations, see edits and
interact with extensions in real-time”
Teething Problems
Google
is trying to repeat the 'invitation' success it had
with the Gmail
with GoogleWave. But unlike Gmail 'invitations' which were
instantaneous (a Gmail user inviting another user used to get instant
mail asking the person to sign up), invitations, which Google calls
'nominations' for GoogleWave is not real time. It says,
“Invite
others to Google Wave. Google Wave is more fun when you have others
to wave with, so please nominate people you would like to add. Keep
in mind that this is a preview so it could be a bit rocky at times.
Invitations will not be sent immediately. We have a lot of stamps to
lick. Happy waving!” By delaying 'nominations' Google is
testing
the patience of users who are keen on having an account and
surprisingly it is not clear as to when the 'invitees' would actually
get the official mail from GoogleWave so that users can activate
account.
you are desperate to use GoogleWave and have a IE (any version), it
is highly advisable to install Google Chrome as it just refused to
work on IE 8 (despite installing Google Chrome Frame plugin) and Wave
Window does not show up. Also, i
contacts section, I was surprised to find the pre-presence of some
people who are not even on my Gtalk. I am still trying to figure out
why they are there in the first place.
thing I noticed, in case you log out of your Gmail, Googlewave also
logs out which might not be liked by all users. After you log out
from Gmail, a message is visible on the top center which says
“You
are offline, with a hyperlinked Connect Now option. But it refuses to
connect despite multiple tries. Finally, one needs to 'sign out' and
log in again. Tried accessing “manage contacts' but each time
I
tried, it gave a page which said “invalid request' despite
putting
in correct ID and password for the first two days. However, on Day 3,
I could access the “Google Contacts Beta” window
which provides
you a list of all your contacts and an intersting folder called
“most
contacted' which as the name suggests lists some contacts with whom
you have interacted the most (probably based on mails you have sent
on Gmail). Another interesting piece of thing on the contact page is
the 'suggestion' thing (made popular by Facebook and Linkedin which
keeps popping up 'people you might know'. Under “Missing
someone?”
It says,
“
easy to add frequently emailed people to My Contacts using our
suggestions.” As you click on “View
Suggestion” , it provides a
list of “Suggested Contacts” (It suggested me 168
contacts).
There is also an option to import and export as well.
is in it for
Business?
Google has provided 3
examples two show how businesses can benefit out of the GoogleWave.
The first example it provides is that of SAP which created an
application within Wave called Gravity providing real-time,
cloud-based collaborative business process modelling. In the demo,
SAP built, it used Gravity to facilitate the development of high
level process descriptions for two merging companies, BCD South Bank
and FH Insurance. Similarly, salesforce.com and mediawikiwave are
trying to use Wave for their collaborative efforts.