Google Wave is here
Get going with the new wave
That’s right, the much awaited Google wave is out and the current experience in the last 3 hours or so of mine with it, tells me, the amazingly crazy genius freaks at Google could not have come up with a better name than ‘wave’.
I have hardly got the hang of it and I am already getting an amazing kick out of using the awesome applications integrated with it. A nice kick, might I add.
Tools, applications, widgets, blogging, chat, conversations, video & voice never looked better.
To start with here is the logo of the wave:
Now entering into the wave:
One word that would describe the ultimate usability factor of wave is “Time”. Time saving seems to be the core behind the app.
Email replies have taken a new meaning to the term conversing.
Real time message typing between users – No need to even click on send if time is a major constraint. Just type. For eg. When the users who are online are conversing with each other using Google wave, the conversations happen in real time. ie. to say in email as one types his reply to the wave started by another, the first wave creator can see the message as it is being typed in real time. The email has taken the chat system to a different level altogether.
Adding contacts to the conversation is nothing more than a single drag & drop to the wave box on top of the application.
Editing emails simultaneously by users who are part of the conversation looks great and it acts like chat function but via email.
The amazingly magical “Playback” feature helps to show markups of editing done in earlier conversations which are to be read through are fabulous and that too in real time environments such as a meeting conversation taking place, the app just makes it remarkable. Take for example in a scenario wherein a new wave entrant has been added to the conversation who has missed out on the beginning of the discussions, all he needs to do is just hit the playback button on top and get a hang of the earlier discussions in a jiffy.
Other Features: In case of an ongoing wave, if the user does not want to type his message in real time, he can click on the check box and make it a regular email feature. Moreover, once you have finished typing you can open your contacts pop-up box and simply add as many people in just a matter of milliseconds and even make them part of the conversation and all this again in real time.
Another remarkable feature is the stupendous spell check integrated with Wave. Its probably one of the best features integrated with the wave.
The integration is so powerful with email that all tools linked like chat / real time conversations / meeting conversations / group conversations / video etc are beautifully put into one single application use and made email a conversational pleasure that saves time to an amazing extent.
Adding attachments, wow, that’s now a real joy. Just drag and drop them into your reply box. It’s done.
Creating photo albums is again just a simple drag & drop feature, plus with the new “tags” function integrated with the inbox, all apps can be now tagged and one can go to the extent of creating Weblinks / as the Google says, wavelinks to make the whole feel, like a webpage being browsed rather than images / text being searched for.
Orkut integrations again happen in real time meaning all your cool features are integrated into this feature, so a scrap is not just a scrap anymore, it becomes a wave and is stored as part of your inbox conversation.
Also to avoid too many follow ups on conversations in the inbox, one can easily unfollow a conversation that he has been part of to avoid clogging up of your inbox.
Blogging once integrated with the api of the wave again happenes in real time, i.e edits done to a blog can be seen on the google wave, pics can be edited right from your inbox and gets updated on your blog real time. So adding comments and conversing in your blog was never so easy.
The wave has some real cool apps for Mobile phones too, but I need to try them out before I make any comments on them.
To sum up the so far tested from the million other features that Google wave has to offer:
It’s a definite must have!
Summing up:
- Real time emailing and conversing
- Privacy & controls over conversations
- Splendid spell check feature happening in real time as message gets typed
- Adding any number of contacts to an ongoing wave
- Playback feature takes even a new wave entrant to the original conversation
- Superb application tools like Maps, interactive games like sudoku, conference etc can be added and played in real time with each other
- Web toolkit of Google makes tremendous contributions in taking wave to a totally new level
- Adding weblinks / wavelinks to conversations makes search & click function really easy
- Tags, tag anything & everything including videos
- Wave integrates as many tools as one can into one single application
- It is Open source, so more goodies from developers to contribute and make the pool massively huge and easy for users across the globe
- Organize and create a hierarchical tree structure of discussions easily now
- Widgets in-between the waves, makes it easy to see the comments / edits made / done / keyed in
- Drag & drop attachments to your replies / mails / waves in a single click
- Create amazingly easy photo albums / tag them, add captions and do it in real time simultaneously by all wave users who are part of that shared album
- Markups to keep track of changes during a meeting / conference wave calls
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So far so great, not just good, but great!
Let’s see what more the amazing waves bring with it.
Till then happy waving!