Google has an extension in the real-time collaboration market with its online software application product Google Wave. First introduced at the Google I/O conference in May 2009, this personal and collaboration tool combines e-mail, instant messaging, wikis, and social networking in a web-based computing platform. Message documents known as waves contain threads of multimedia messages (blips) that are stored on central servers. Participants may be added or removed from a wave at any point during its existence and have the capability to modify a wave at any location. Changes made to waves are noted in real-time and search functions allow participants to see modification history which is also available through another feature called the playback function.
A eweek.com news article by Clint Boulton reported that over one million people are actively using Google wave. He provided many different examples of how the tool can be utilized. For instance, Boulton described how a global youth panel created by Debatewise.org allowed approximately 1,000 individuals from 130 countries to utilize the collaboration platform to debate, share links and content. Another example indicated that a web manager at Clear Channel Radio used the tool for an on-air and online promotion that involved clients that required feedback from different groups of people. The wave decreased the amount of time it would have originally required had the process only involved a typical e-mail exchange.
To read Clint Boulton’s article in its entirety click here.
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