Google Wave - what will it be?
Jinfo Blog

30th July 2009

By Udo Hohlfeld

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This week Google rolled out a new product to several thousand programmers as a developer preview: Google Wave. What is it? It is a platform that blends various applications from Google Apps - Google's suite of productivity apps for enterprises covering word processing, e-mail, calendar, video and wiki-style collaboration. Google Wave blends e-mail, instant messaging and social networking. Google talks of a next-generation collaboration and communication platform, and Google Wave does indeed seem to be a disruptive technology which could revolutionize the market for unified communication and collaboration tools as it exists today. Ted Schadler, an analyst with Forrester Research, expects that Wave will be launched in the consumer market first, adding 'it's clear to me that if this mode of conversational collaboration takes off, Google will find ways to offer it to the enterprise' (http://digbig.com/5bacxc). The focus of Google Wave is to reflect already the future way in which (business) teams will collaborate and get their work done. It achieves this by mixing real-time and asynchronous collaboration and productivity tools. What is clear is that Google Wave will need some time to be released to the market; analysts estimate one to two years. What remains unclear is how Google will position Google Wave, as it could possibly cannibalize its existing Google Apps offering. What is undoubtedly clear is that Google needs, before too long, another successful product or service beyond its search/advertising offering for financial reasons - and Wave has this potential. At least the first comments by early testers indicate their excitement. More resources: Google Wave Homepage - http://wave.google.com Google to Launch Google Wave Public Beta in Sept - http://digbig.com/5bacxd Google Reinvents Email, Docs with 'Google Wave' - http://digbig.com/5bacxe Slide Show: A Conversation in Google Wave - http://digbig.com/5bacxf

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