Wave hello to Google's new toy

Tristan, our Deputy Head of Search, sent around an email last night, phenomenally excited about the arrival of Google Wave.

In short, Wave is Google’s ‘real time communication platform’.  What does this actually mean?  Well, this excerpt from Mashable lets us know a little more…

“It combines aspects of email, instant messaging, wikis, web chat, social networking, and project management to build one elegant, in-browser communication client. You can bring a group of friends or business partners together to discuss how your day has been or share files.”

…which you understand even better when you have a look at the released screenshot:

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There yet?  No?

Well, if you remember your second year physics class, I guess it’s kind of like taking the principle of an online group discussion, and moving it from ‘series’, where one thing happens after the other, to ‘parallel’, where everything happens at once:

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So rather than sending one email at a time, or waiting in turn to answer a group email, you and your friends or colleagues, wherever you are across the world, will be able to share the online communication experience simultaneously, as if you were all in a room. 

And no doubt at that glorious Google price point of ‘free’.

I think it sounds amazing in principle, but of course the proof of the pudding is in the eating, and it won’t be on general release just yet.

There is one thing that slightly bothers me though… it looks a bit, well, complicated.  Busy.  Cluttered.  Just kind of, well, not very ‘Google’.  But we’ll see I guess.

And last, but by no means least… it’s got a lovely logo.  ahhhh, a lovely logo…

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