In anticipation of the first invites going out for Google Wave, earlier this week Shawn Scarsdale, a Multimedia Developer at Click Here, gave a great presentation to the agency to help us all understand this new platform. As of yesterday, the Google Wave invites are out, and already showing up on eBay. We thought this was a great opportunity to share what we learned and answer questions you might have:
Q: What is Google Wave?
A: How email would look if it was invented today… and much more
This was the simple challenge the Google Wave team started out with: What does email look like in the 21st century? The answer was Google Wave, where communication is collaborative, brings in the real-time aspect of instant messaging and the distribution of communication that social media has made ubiquitous. If you prefer the no-nonsense explanation of what the Google Wave is, watch this video.
Q: Why is Google Wave Important?
A: It competes with important platforms like Facebook and Twitter
The jury is still out on whether or not Google Wave truly poses a threat to Facebook and Twitter, but consider that many segments of the online population have already replaced email communication with instant messaging or social networks like Facebook. Google Wave is offering many of the same real-time communication tools. What remains to be seen is if Google can achieve the same scale as these popular platforms. They haven’t been able to do it with some of their other tools.
Q: What Are the Opportunities for my Brand on Google Wave?
A: Gadgets, Robots and Embeds
The folks at Mashable have one of the best Google Wave guides I’ve seen. Beyond the core functionality of Google Wave, the guide outlines three distinct categories of Google Wave features worth paying attention to:
Gadgets: These are fully-functional applications that are shared by a Wave. Most iGoogle and OpenSocial applications will work in Google Wave. An example of a Gadget would be a group poll application or games.
Robots: Robots are essentially an extra “person” in a Wave, but they’re not a person, they’re an automated “robot.” Think similar to the instant messaging bots you might be familiar with.
Embeds: The easiest way to understand embeds is that this is how you take a Wave out into a third-party website. Similar to the way you “embed” a YouTube video on any website.
Q: What Should I be Doing Now?
A: Follow the conversation, request an invitation and get your developers involved
There will be no shortage of conversation about Google Wave and possibilities over the coming weeks and months. It will be important to stay current on these conversations, as we’re likely to see some very smart folks dreaming up some very smart ideas on what Google Wave will eventually be. In the meantime, submit your invitation request, as Google tends to roll these out, well, in “waves.” Most importantly, have your developers or your agency’s developers investigating the Google Wave APIs.
I’m sure we’ll be posting about this subject again in the near future… I can’t help but think that even if Google Wave doesn’t replace email for the 21st century, it will certainly throw down a challenge for our communication tools to evolve, and for us to evolve with them.
1 Comment | Trackback | Categories: 1000 Ft. POV, Tips and Tricks | Email This Post
October 2nd, 2009 at 9:30 am
Yes bring it on lets catch the wave and ride it baby.
Be wary of twitter posts directing people to invite pages.. stay away folks.
You can go direct to google wave dot com to find out what to do..
Excited to see the next new wave on the internet.