Google Wave
The Next Wave of Communication
The central idea behind the Google Wave concept, when Lars Rasmussen first floated it, was to blend email, instant-messaging and file-sharing harmoniously in a single, fully-interactive, real-time platform. Sounds simple right? Well, maybe not, but try explaining Google Earth before the realisation of the technology and you’d almost certainly elicit the same doubt-ridden, head-tilting, squinty-eyed glare that Google Wave evokes in the doubters.
As Google’s list of revolutionary accomplishments grow by the day, perhaps it’s time we all stepped back, gave them the benefit of the doubt and passively embraced whatever technological advancements the boys in Silicon Valley believe are in our greatest interests. For businesses, it appears Google Wave is going to be just that.
Consider this. Google Wave is said to be the closest thing to mirroring face-to-face communication that the web can offer. That’s a bold statement, but everything Google do is bold, right? I’m certainly not going to be arguing the point.
So what if you could sit in your Melbourne office, type your client a message, and have each character you type transmit live, in real time, to your client’s New York office laptop?
What if a third party could rewind conversations and individually review each message chronologically as if they were there to witness the order and context of conversation as it happened?
What if you could drag-and-drop photos, articles, videos, maps and documents into the browser for all parties to view or discuss concurrently?
What if you and your client could simultaneously edit a document, each correction you make instantaneously relayed to the other as it’s made?
With Google Wave you can do it all, and so much more.
No waiting. No miscommunication. Just two parties, with similar interests, communicating as if they were in the same room; as efficiently as the web will allow.
Google Wave, a ‘personal communication and collaboration tool’, as Google have labelled it, is set to revolutionise everything we know about B2B communication and business in general.
An Evolving Business Strategy
As the Google team presented Wave for the first time at the Google I/O Developer Conference earlier this year, and a clearly engrossed expert developer crowd applauded intermittently, Lars implored them to actively display their appreciation. “Don’t be shy”, he said. “We can handle pretty much any amount of applause”.
They’re used to it, and can only embrace it now. As Google Maps, Google Earth and Google Chrome have been heralded almost universally, we should expect nothing different when Google Wave is released.
How does it impact you? Here are a couple of ways it might.
Efficiency:
Google Wave means a lot of things. From a business perspective, Google Wave means greater production. The all-inclusive platform means each ‘wave’, or thread as it would be traditionally known, affords measurable, tangible results, where conversations can be tracked and recorded both as they happen, and for future reference.
As Google Wave’s open-source functionality allows users to adapt the platform to suit their specific personal or business requirements, efficiency becomes a natural by-product. |
Collaboration:
Previously, with traditional email services, threads allowed multiple parties to be included in a single conversation. To send a message or reply, it was required that the entire thread of previous emails be sent back and forth, stored in each participant’s inbox for context and historical reference. Each of the involved parties could theoretically collaborate, but in a far less literal sense – ideas could be exchanged, but implemented individually, on different computers, in different locations. With Wave, simplicity and centrality rule.
Because each message is now stored in its complete form on a central server, collaboration on a single document is simplified. It’s like analogue collaboration gone digital. Anybody, at any point in the history of the wave, can reply, edit or add another party, with each party privileged to the progressive history of the document-editing process and relevant dialogue.
Wave’s functionality as an instant messaging service also allows users to communicate at a far more practical rate than traditional email allowed.
By understanding the simplicity of these user-friendly, collaborative tools, an insight into the ease of future business functionality is possible. That Google Wave is heralded as the closest thing to face-to-face communication online is also no surprise.
Wave’s recent release means, essentially, that its impact on business functionality, while promising, is difficult to define. Will it replace email? That’s difficult to say, dependent on whether it’s absorbed by the masses. What we can say, for now, is that the potential for greatness is evident.
Because Wave is open-source, developers the world-over are getting on board, too, and that only increases the potential of the all-encompassing technology.
In a world where mediated-communication holds sway, replacing the personalised interaction we’ve lost can only be a good thing. As for the actual, tangible results, well, we’ll just have to wait and see. And trust that once again Jens and Lars know best. |
