Google Wave: What Does It Do Exactly?

The magic of conversations (just like in real life)

The main difference of Google Wave from  traditional email is this– emails are displayed as conversations, which is a functionality that can’t be found in emails other than Google. Through conversations, you can keep track of messages that have been sent back and forth, instead of scaning your inbox to search for the start of a thread.

Structuring of messages

Starting a conversation consists of you inviting participants to collaborate with you. Updates are reflected on your conversation window real-time. Should you need to reply to a text somewhere in the middle of the email, you can split message apart and insert your comment. This way, it’s easier to keep track of structure, since you reply to specific parts of a message and Google Wave automatically displays the entire conversation in chronological order.

Live transmission of messages

If your conversation window happens to be left open on the browsers of al participants, the conversation becomes something similar to a live chat. There is also an option for live transmission–other user can see what you’re typing even before you hit done (though this feature is optional).

Sharing is caring: adding participants

Adding a participant to the conversation is as simple as dragging their avatar onto the conversation window. If they find that they missed the gist of the message, they can easily playback to replay the exchanges made prior to being added, from the very start. Participants can send private messages to each other on the same conversation, with it being visible to others..

Drag and drop objects

To add attachments is just as easy as well–all you have to do is click and drag the items onto conversation window and the thumbnails load onto participant’s windows real-time as well.

Create “waves” on your website

You can also embed waves onto your webpage–meaning, you can also start conversations on your blog. There is a user bot named Bloggie, whom you can start a conversation with by dragging files/photos onto its conversation window. Updates automatically show up on your blog or website. Participants/viewers can reply using Google Wave without going to the blog itself.

Making waves while mobile

Updates from the mobile are also added onto the conversation real-tiome and is visible on the conversation windows of the participants. 

Push-button editing

To edit files, messages or photo captions, simply click the edit button on the top right corner of the conversation window. Updates are, again, reflected real-time.

Tagging

Tag waves to make conversations and files searchable.

Virtual meetings: discussions and content collaboration in one

You can add participants. Participants can make changes to a document that you upload. Whatever changes they make will appear in participants’ conversation windows, showing who made changes and what changes have been made. To see changes made in chronological order, participants can playback to keep track of how changes were made and by whom.

Documents such as word files and rich text format can also be uploaded. Editing is made the same way as in conversation, where people can insert comments or edits in between paragraphs, and any changes are highlighted and  shown to other participants.

Google is, like always, ahead of the pack. The future of email and online collaboration is coming to your browsers (it works great on Chrome, Explorer and Safari so far) very soon, through Google Wave.

To watch the Google Wave demo at the Google I/O keynote 2009, watch the video below: