So Google Wave is out, well, a “preview” version of Google Wave is out. I received my invite in my inbox this morning along with about one hundred thousand others. What does it look like?
Nothing remarkable looking there really, but what’s behind it is a little more fascinating (if you’re a nerd). What is that fascinating technology? Synchronous communication – as you’re typing the text appears on your Wave companions screen.
Whilst at first this may not sound like much, I’ve slowly found my head filling up with the possibilities. Here’s a test case:
I recently was providing some support to a client. We were chatting in Skype and I was using TeamViewer to connect to their computer. As I could see their screen I could see what they were typing. Watching them type I knew what their question was after they’d written a few words and was instantly able to compose my answer. Often I’d finished my answer before they’d finished typing their question. I’d have to wait for them to finish typing, send their message, and then I’d instantly hit send on my message. They must have been a little confused: “How can he answer so quickly?!”
I was their caped crusader, their saviour, the support guru with mysterious powers of IT knowledge. Doing this I realised how IM is somewhat frustrating – how long do we spend watching ‘Timmy is typing…’
Google Wave finishes with that – now communication is as synchronous as a conversation. What’s more is it’s all open source and adds a massive extension function to allow you to plug Wave into a myriad of possibilities around the web.
Interested?
As you can see in that image above, I have some invites left. Less than six though – I’ve got three left, if you’d like one, leave a comment here and I’ll send an invite to the email address you use for your comment.
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