Will the world surf Google's Wave?

Google Wave logo

Google today invited 100,000 users to try out their new Google Wave platform which combines "e-mail, instant messaging and wiki-style editing", but with so many communication platforms out there such as Facebook, Twitter, Instant Messengers and plain old email, how is Google Wave to make its mark?

Firstly, it would be foolish of us to underestimate Google and the buzz on the platform is all over the 'Net, but does it really add anything new to communicating online? Described as "how e-mail would look if it were invented today", it has been said to change how people will communicate online.

Described as a "communication and collaboration tool", Google Wave is designed to be a platform for real-time networking, where friends and colleagues can come together to work or play, by talking, editing documents, playing games or looking at photos and videos.

Part document and part conversation, a 'wave' allows participants to reply anywhere in the message as well as editing the content, add new collaborators and play-back what has gone before it. All done in real time, it can allow people to come together and interact on a professional and social level with the constraints of time and distance.

It will also enable communication with people you don't even share a common language with, as the system will come with a translation application, converting foreign text into English while they (and vice versa) type.

Speaking to the BBC, Lars Rasmussen, who with his brother Jens also founded Google Maps, commented on how standard email has become rather antiquated.

"It struck us that e-mail is still the main communication tool on the web, which seemed remarkable given that it is 20-year-old technology," he said.

Working from the concept of how to have "a conversation sitting in a cloud", the brothers working on a tool that allowed a lot of flexibility such as wiki-esque content editing, adding media content and a real time aspect, that has become so popular due to Twitter. This however, can be turned off should people want to maintain a certain level of privacy.

It is also designed to be 'open source' so third party developers can add applications, much like Facebook and Twitter. As you'd expect, there are already a host of gaming apps for social games such as Chess and Sudoku.

Google Wave will run in most browsers, with the notable exception of Microsoft's Internet Explorer (IE) which could be a problem considering it's wide use. However, an application will be made available for download, known as the Chrome Frame, which will adapt IE accordingly for Wave usage.

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