If anyone here thinks Google has been resting on their collective laurels, think again. From their move into Yelp territory with Place Pages to the Microsoft smackdown of Google Docs, Google is proving that they can take the web (and the software industry) where they please (let’s hope they keep their informal corporate motto “Don’t be Evil” at heart).
Enter Google Wave. How to explain this: It’s an all-in-one communication and collaboration system that has the ability to supplant email (one of the first and most disruptive technologies the internet has ever spawned) and far beyond. You can think of it as a real-time webspace that can accept any type of media, be edited by anyone you invite, all the while being a central repository for every communication tool you currently use.
And it’s open: meaning anyone can write applications that enhance and extend Wave’s usefulness. And, for the truly geek: it’s based on XMPP protocol. This means that it can be served just like email protocol can be served. Really, if done right, this could be huge.
The pre-launch (to registered Googlites and Developers) is tomorrow, September 30, with a general launch date later. With their recent Gmail outages they are probably going to make triple-sure that Wave can scale dramatically. Google lost some trust capital with their recent outages and cloud computing usage is mighty fickle – especially when it comes to reliability.
Let the wave roll!
