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Google Wave  (View post)

Franta H. [PersonRank 6]

Thursday, May 28, 2009
15 years ago18,053 views

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_7ZYqYi4xigk/Sh40hRLylhI/AAAAAAAAD10/sLJ28_3Fe9E/s1600-h/Google_Wave_snapshots_inbox.png

Official blog: http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2009/05/went-walkabout-brought-back-google-wave.html

Google Code Blog: http://google-code-updates.blogspot.com/2009/05/hello-world-meet-google-wave.html

Google Wave API: http://code.google.com/apis/wave/

James Xuan [PersonRank 10]

15 years ago #

http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/05/28/google-wave-drips-with-ambition-can-it-fulfill-googles-grand-web-vision/#comment-2770651

A great write up on techcrunch

Luka [PersonRank 10]

15 years ago #

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ykZYKCK7AM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sx3Fpw0XCXk&feature=channel

hebbet [PersonRank 10]

15 years ago #

https://www.google.com/accounts/ServiceLogin?service=wave

Luka [PersonRank 10]

15 years ago #

wavesandbox.com

Above 5 comments were made in the forum before this was blogged,

Luka [PersonRank 10]

15 years ago #

Looking at this make me think that Wave is way more advanced in term of technologies and power than Gmail...

I think i could switch from Gmail to Wave very quickly...

beussery [PersonRank 10]

15 years ago #

http://picasaweb.google.com/beussery/GoogleIO2009IO2009#

Philipp Lenssen [PersonRank 10]

15 years ago #

[Thanks Brian, added that link to the post!]

James Xuan [PersonRank 10]

15 years ago #

Pet Peeve: I've not > I haven't

Chris Harris [PersonRank 0]

15 years ago #

This is a good source for multi-comm. I wonder if it will be as well linked to all the other sites? Friendfeed has saved my life and my time lately.

Pau Tomàs [PersonRank 10]

15 years ago #

There's a new realtime gadget API for Google Talk, one of the sample is a Chess game just like the one on Wave screenshots. Is this realtime gadget API part of Weave?

http://googletalk.blogspot.com/2009/05/attention-nerds-new-gadgets-api-for.html

TOMHTML [PersonRank 10]

15 years ago #

When I read all the comments about that, it reminds me the launch of Lively. Will it get the same end?

J. McNair [PersonRank 10]

15 years ago #

Google Wave 1.0 = GMail 4.0 out of beta?

I hope it loads fast and there's a way to integrate it with Google Voice/GrandCentral

Philipp Lenssen [PersonRank 10]

15 years ago #

Kevin Fox at Friendfeed comments, "I hope I like Wave when I get to play with it but (and this isn't specific to Wave) I hope designers understand that if someone has 100 contacts, they'll identify the contact's name faster than their buddy icon. 50x50 icons (with 25x20 faces) are too small to trigger the brain's facial recognition unless you're staring right at them." (http://friendfeed.com/kfury/a159edc8/i-hope-like-wave-when-get-to-play-with-it-but-and)

http://blogoscoped.com/files/google-wave-avatars.png

Glen Turpin [PersonRank 0]

15 years ago #

Re: "...see each character as it is typed."

That sounds like a very, very bad idea.

matt [PersonRank 0]

15 years ago #

seems WAY to late for this... this supposed to beat facebook?

Philipp Lenssen [PersonRank 10]

15 years ago #

> That sounds like a very, very bad idea.

There's apparently also a "draft" mode which lets you turn this off, on your end, so that you can type without being read instantly. However, if you ever tried out this real-time chat-as-you-type stuff on Etherpad, you might actually like it. It feels more direct, personal, real. Kind of fun for certain use cases (probably not all!). http://blogoscoped.com/archive/2008-11-20-n42.html

Luka [PersonRank 10]

15 years ago #

Wave -> blog
http://www.zorgloob.com/uploaded_images/waveEntities-709162.png

Luka [PersonRank 10]

15 years ago #

http://www.zorgloob.com/uploaded_images/embedsample-756336.png

Luka [PersonRank 10]

15 years ago #

Wave on iphone and Android : video!

http://www.slashgear.com/google-wave-demo-for-iphone-and-android-2845086/

KeHoeff [PersonRank 0]

15 years ago #

hey this is a very interesting article!

/pd [PersonRank 10]

15 years ago #

is this same as the walkabout project ?

milivella [PersonRank 10]

15 years ago #

I guess that we all have thought of something similar once. So the question is: will the implementation of this idea by Google have that "something special" that Google web search, Gmail, Google Reader (add your favorite Google products here) had when launched? I am clueless, and I'd like to know your opinion (based on what we know at the moment, obviously).

Philipp Lenssen [PersonRank 10]

15 years ago #

Pd, "Walkabout" was the codename of the product, Google says...

/pd [PersonRank 10]

15 years ago #

Ok.. then I remain zip lipped :)-

solly.. been away and not yet caught up to the grove of what happening :)-

Marcin Sochacki (Wanted) [PersonRank 10]

15 years ago #

Re: "...see each character as it is typed."

That's so 70's. Unix 'talk' had this for ages! ;-)

Libran Lover [PersonRank 4]

15 years ago #

Regardless of whether the first version of Wave works smoothly or not, this is a GREAT idea. I can see this replacing a lot of use-cases which currently reside with email and chat, plus give us some great additional functionality.

Even if the first version doesn't work that well, I can imagine using something like this as my primary online communication tool in 5 years – either Google's product or somebody else's.

I hope they have a couple of additional features in this -
1. Voice/video chat.
2. Ability to share & remote control Desktop.

Philipp Lenssen [PersonRank 10]

15 years ago #

I asked Google about which browsers are supported for Google Wave, and they rely:

"This is only a developer preview, but when we launch this publicly we're aiming to have it work on Google Chrome, Firefox, Safari and Internet Explorer."

Zim [PersonRank 10]

15 years ago #

It's not interesting to anyone (but me) to say this, but... I have some notes in one of my notebooks about a idea similar to this one. I can't be less than happy reading it's going live from Google, even if I couldn't throw in my ideas. Hopefully, I'd be able to share some of them and use this new amazing tool.
I see here a lot of people saying it's a bad idea or that this is trying to beat facebook. Well, in my opinion this is something slightly different from what we have currently working online. I liked the "Gmail 4.0" expression. If this becomes widely used, it could change the current online communication paradigm. GMail makes mail communication easy and fast. Facebook lets users connect with each other and share "life stuff". Friendfeed is on the same road. Mixing the good old chat with forums, we get something like the WP P2 theme (http://wordpress.org/extend/themes/p2). And mixing all this together, we get something like Wave.
We'll see what happens!

Zim [PersonRank 10]

15 years ago #

Something else I've just noticed while writing an article at my blog... In one of the screenshots there is a green circle with a check in the upper right zone (near the sign out, privacy and terms links). Does this mean that it will work offline?

Luka [PersonRank 10]

15 years ago #

1H20 presentation of wave :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v_UyVmITiYQ

ZFT [PersonRank 1]

15 years ago #

its look like more advanced version of Google's Socialstream Project . what do u think Guys

James Xuan [PersonRank 10]

15 years ago #

Wow, never thought of SocialStream but I'm sure if has had at least some influence on it...

James Xuan [PersonRank 10]

15 years ago #

What have you embedded in the blog Philipp? Safari is reporting a missing mime type...

Philipp Lenssen [PersonRank 10]

15 years ago #

James, which URL throws the error?

mbegin [PersonRank 10]

15 years ago #

I'm using Google Chrome, and I'm seeing a missing plugin too...

(When I click the link to view YouTube, the video plays fine.)

http://img43.imageshack.us/img43/6254/missingplugin.gif

Ionut Alex. Chitu [PersonRank 10]

15 years ago #

There's an error in your code:

.... type="application/x-shockwave-flash” allowfullscreen="true" ....

(use proper quotes)

Philipp Lenssen [PersonRank 10]

15 years ago #

Example of real-time (letter-by-letter translation) in Google Wave (via Andy Baio):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v_UyVmITiYQ#t=01h12m42s

Philipp Lenssen [PersonRank 10]

15 years ago #

(Thanks Ionut, updated the post! I have an auto quotes converter when posting which I sometimes need to turn off...)

Ben Allen [PersonRank 10]

15 years ago #

I see the potential for Wave to replace Gmail. There are an amazing amount of people that will be stuck in the email communication system, though.

Google's going to have seventy ways to communicate and collaborate by the end of the year. :P

milivella [PersonRank 10]

15 years ago #

The more I read about GW, the more it seems great to me. The only problem I can think of in this moment is summed up in the O'Reilly article [1]:
"As anyone who's used version control knows, a document with lots of discussion and edits can become pretty messy."
I think that the solution that O'Reilly sees is not optimal (even if I admit that it's sensible):
"No problem. You can export an edited wave as a new wave, and start over."

[1] http://radar.oreilly.com/2009/05/google-wave-what-might-email-l.html

GuillaumeB [PersonRank 9]

15 years ago #

Looks cool though I wonder if there is not another motive behing the open source strategy.

I mean to take full advantage of Wave both parts need it.

Now what happens thread management if one part uses Wave and the other uses Gmail...? that's the interesting question cause I doubt everyone will switch over there unless Google updates all Gmail accounts.

(For example if someone using Wave edits one of my messages sent by Gmail... how will it show up for me.)

Surly Teabag [PersonRank 2]

15 years ago #

> (For example if someone using Wave edits one of my messages sent by Gmail... how will it show up for me.)

Ideally, Wave would send back an e-mail, just quoting the edited part of the message and including the new text. E-mail replies with quoted text could also be integrated back into the wave. If Wave is really backward-compatible with IM, e-mail, message boards, wikis, etc., it will be revolutionary. Maybe bigger than Gmail.

If you watch the 1H20 video linked above, you will hear arguments about how the echo-text-as-it-is-being-typed feature will actually dramatically improve the speed of the conversation. I had always wondered why "instant" messaging didn't have this feature. As the UNIX 'talk' program shows, it can be much more dynamic and fun. And you can always turn it off in Wave.

GuillaumeB [PersonRank 9]

15 years ago #

yeh well i do hope it's backward compatible otherwise nobody will ever move there..the echo-text-as-it-is-being-typed is cool, used to see that in ICQ in the 90s

Franck [PersonRank 1]

15 years ago #

Check the video at 33min43s.

DeSalvionjr [PersonRank 2]

15 years ago #

I did the math and found that google wave will most likely be released by the end of august...
unless something comes up during development...
Questions? @DeSalvionjr

GuillaumeB [PersonRank 9]

15 years ago #

>>Check the video at 33min43s.
I did, but not sure what you mean

Anyway how cool it really is, it sure has its limit. cause if i'm not on the same server a somebody else using waves then all the collaboration features wont be available...it will just be normal email... Am I right ? i understood you need to be on the same central server to take advantage of all that.

Therefore in a way it does not make the web really open but would tend to enclose it

Oh and i doubt MS and yahoo! will adopt that anyway which is bad considering their marketshare in both email and IM

So basically i think it's cool but it seems to me as a beefed up Gmail, nothing more for the average user. And i 'm thinking this is will be a paid option for the Google Apps owners like me cause Google realy want to be profitable in that sphere.

Surly Teabag [PersonRank 2]

15 years ago #

> Anyway how cool it really is, it sure has its limit. cause if i'm not on the same server a somebody else using waves then all the collaboration features wont be available...

Google is going to release the protocols behind Wave, so anyone can build their own wave server. They will be able to inter-operate.

http://www.waveprotocol.org/

Roger Browne [PersonRank 10]

15 years ago #

Even if nothing more comes to Gmail than Wave's context-aware spell checker, the benefit will be enormous.

Tony Thampan [PersonRank 0]

15 years ago #

I was seeing the wave video and a thought struck me. Wave has a feature called history where it plays all the edits that have happened on the wave. Similarly when you are playing the chess game it stores all them moves that had happened.

Now what is the additional storage cost of all this information which is being stored by google ? Till now we had no need to store all this information but google may make it free for all and hence why not save this too ?

At the end of the day, we would be generating electricity to store data which we may never use again.

(there is the other side that multiple copies of emails were kept due to personal copies being kept. Now it is no longer required as we are keeping stuff on central servers)

Could somebody do a cost estimation :-) ?

James Xuan [PersonRank 10]

15 years ago #

[put at-character here]Tony Think of how useful that data could be?

All of those chess moves could be added to Google's database and have computational value, all of this new information to process for them. I think it's a good thing.

Thomas [PersonRank 0]

15 years ago #

[put at-character here]Tony I think it is just the Delta that is saved, so actually the storage is less than a e-mail that is sendt around for a lot of users.

Gregg L. DesElms [PersonRank 0]

15 years ago #

Thinking of Wave in terms of "replacing" such as GMAIL (or even email, itself) is just silly. Not every Internet communication needs to be (or even should be) as would be in Wave. Traditional email, at the very least, should (and likely will) never go away. Of this, I think there should be little fear or doubt.

Now, that doesn't mean there won't be a place – and a potent one, indeed – in our lives for such as Wave and its ineluctable variants. It, too, will be useful, under the right circumstances. In fact, from my admittedly only-cursory analysis of it to date, I'm thinking that what actually MAY be "replaced" by Wave, as a practical matter, is traditional "chat," as we now know it (though traditional chat, mark my words, will continue to be around for years and years, too, no matter how good Wave ultimately gets).

Regardless, one thing about which we should all be clear in our minds is that we're not talking about the mere replacing of anything, here. Wave, for better or worse, seems very nearly of the nature of paradigm shift... and far be it from me to suggest that that's, necessarily, a bad thing, here.

It does, however, come with pitfalls about which we should all be watchful, if not actually downright concerned. For example, though it's now coming out in articles (and/or rebuttals to such as I am posting here) that it's likely to be user-configurable, initial writings about Wave touted the ability (and represented it as essential to Wave's very way of operating) of all persons in a "wave" (or a thread) to be able to see, in real time, all others' keystrokes, as they type.

Let me repeat the salient words of that, here: AS. THEY. TYPE.

Think about that, please, for just a moment. It's a far larger problem than, perhaps, it initially seems. Like how sausage is made (or, as some joke, like how laws are passed), some things in life may better be left something of a mystery to those who ultimately consume (or are regulated by) them; and, most importantly, solely at the creator's option.

The ultimate impact and meaning to the reader of anything written would be inordinately influenced by said reader's having been a witness to its creation. If one is a thoughtful writer who doesn't just blurt out every wayward thing which flits through one's brain, then one is going to pause to think while one types, and back-up and delete and re-type, and whatever else behind-the-scenes activity goes into what ends-up being the finished written product. If the reader were able to witness what the writer merely paused before writing; or actually did write, but then thought better of and either removed or changed to something else, then the bell of what the reader saw along the way cannot be un-rung; and the reader's ultimate interpretation and understanding of the final written result will be indelibly affected in ways (even if not immediately obvious) more likely than not to be inherently bad for all concerned.

Now, if it's true, as some who challenge such as my assertions, here, are now saying, that the ability of others to view one's keystrokes as one makes them is (or at least will be) user-configurable in the version of Wave which is finally released to the end-user wild, then my concern, at least on this particular privacy-related point, is happily ameliorated.

However, of larger philosophical concern to me is that the creators of Wave apparently believed, even if only briefly, that something as basic as this issue would not be important. What, then (if anything), does that mean we should also be wary of in the realm of personal privacy protections, just generally, for users of this new and groundbreaking product? For what else should we be watching which may, ultimately, negatively impact us because of fundamental, and at least initially seemingly harmless, privacy encroachments...

...encroachments which may not even be recognizable as encroachments to Wave's creators because, perhaps, of their nationality and upbringing (nothing negative, mind you, intended by that wording, I assure).

One potentially troubling impact (at least from the standpoint of Americans, in my opinion) of globalization (which, incidentaly, I'm not fundamentally against, despite how what I'm about to write may make it seem) is how the sensibilities of those non-Americans who create things which all others on the planet end-up using can unintentionally contravene that which Americans hold perhaps nearer and dearer to their hearts than do non-American others. Those who grew up and still live in countries where such things as privacy and freedom of speech are not as absolute and paramount as in the US may or may not necessarily value such rights to the same degree as do Americans; and it sometimes shows in their work.

It has not escaped my notice that the two brothers – brilliant though they are – who created and continue to develop Wave were neither born and raised in, nor now live in, the US... and so I fear (and I may be completely wrong about this, I realize... but absent, at this point, any reason not to, I am nevertheless fearing that they) may not place as much of a premium on the notion of absolute privacy (if desired by the end-user of Wave) as do Americans.

Or, who knows, maybe they do. I don't know them, and it's unfair of me to presume, I suppose (or even to suppose, I presume). One way or the other, though, it should be at least a concern to all that the default behavior of Wave seems so inherently and joltingly privacy-denuding.

So, then, again, begged is the question: Of what else (if anything), in Wave, should we who hold inviolate our privacy be wary?

To appeal to (at least thinking) Americans, the makers of Wave need to take steps to ensure that if the end-user wants to protect his/her absolute privacy while using this admittedly exciting and paradigm-shifting new product, it can, via easy configuration settings, be satisfactorily and incontrovertibly achieved at all possible levels, and in all possible ways. Moreover, as it is developed, the makers of Wave might need to realize that they may, because of their nationality and upbringing, not necessarily even recognize what all of those levels and ways might be; and the Americans (or even the non-Americans who at least fully grasp the American viewpoint regarding all this) who work on the development of Wave should ensure that no privacy holes such as I'm discussing here remain anywhere in it when it's finally and fully released into the end-user wild.

Or so it is my opinion... my two cents worth, as it were...

...which my ex-wife, for example, among others, has been known to quickly attest tends to be about all it's usually worth.

__________________________
Gregg L. DesElms
Napa, California
gregg[at]greggdeselms.com

Roger Browne [PersonRank 10]

15 years ago #

Oh come on Greg, did you even watch the demo? They clearly show the "as you type" option being turned on and off, and Wave being used with and without the "as you type" option.

Inferno [PersonRank 10]

15 years ago #

They have started to allow the attendees access their Google Wave accounts.

Some people are just so lucky. Before attending Google I/O, they never asked for Google Wave. They didn't even know what Google Wave was. :P

Reto Meier [PersonRank 10]

15 years ago #

I'd love to see the Blogoscoped forum using the Wave embed API down the track :)

Zim [PersonRank 10]

15 years ago #

Inferno: Did you?

Reto Meier: It would be great. +1 to that

KMB [PersonRank 7]

15 years ago #

Is each attachement/files saved on each person's wave-server? So you can't retract permissions/rights for files and photos you don't want to share anymore?

beussery [PersonRank 10]

15 years ago #

[put at-character here]KMB

Not sure about how it's saved or ability to retract but you retain all rights according to the "Terms". That is my understanding at least....

Inferno [PersonRank 10]

15 years ago #

Zim: Nah!. How could I attend the I/O from the other side of the world. :P

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