Google

Google is going to release “Google Wave”, a method of email that will incorporate improved interactivity and instant messaging. The new G-tool, to be released later this year, is being developed at Google Australia with the help of engineers and alpha users given access to the tools.

The new tool is based on the concept is creating a wave and adding people to it, developing an online community in which everyone can interact using richly formatted text, photos, gadgets, and feeds from other sources on the web. Riders of the wave can insert a reply or edit the wave directly. They can see almost instantly what their collaborators are typing, as well play back the sequence of events in the conversation.

The concept was initially developed as “Walkabout” by Lars and Jens Rasmussen, who developed Google Maps. They wondered what would happen if we didn’t use email the way it was invented over 40 years ago that mimics traditional postal mail as Internet messaging mimics phone calls.



The Rasmussens continued to ask questions. “Why do we have to live with divides between different types of communication — email versus chat, or conversations versus documents? Could a single communications model span all or most of the systems in use on the web today, in one smooth continuum? How simple could we make it? What if we tried designing a communications system that took advantage of computers’ current abilities, rather than imitating non-electronic forms?”