Google Wave: What It Is And How It Works

Google used its annual I/O conference to announce its new Wave communications platform. Built by the same team of Australian Google engineers who created Google Maps, the latest Web application from the search giant allows you to combine e-mail, instant messaging, photo management and social-networking technologies into a single tool.

See related:

Is Google Wave the Solution to Social Network Over-Sharing?

Google's Wave Consolidates Core Online Features in One Tool

Is Google Wave a Twitter Killer?

The core interface of Google Wave resembles a standard e-mail box with some tweaks. The most important part of the interface is the right box, which shows the conversations, dubbed "waves" by Google. These conversation can have multiple participants, who all have the ability to edit the conversation at any time, with each user seeing a live feed of what each participant is doing within that feed.

The middle box shows the list of conversations which are either in progress or have been conducted in the past. User icons on the left show the individual wave's participants, and the small green badges show which users are online.

See related:

Is Google Wave the Solution to Social Network Over-Sharing?

Google's Wave Consolidates Core Online Features in One Tool

Is Google Wave a Twitter Killer?

While at its most basic Google Wave can be seen as a combination of instant messaging and e-mail, there is a lot more going on. New participants can be added to a wave at any time either by clicking "Add" on the wave or dragging and dropping a contact from the Contacts pane on the left to the wave.

Once a wave is in progress, users can add pictures by simply dragging them into the wave. These will progressively download, so that the thumbnails of the pictures appear instantly, while the full image is loaded in the background. Users can also conduct "quiet" conversations with one or two other participants within the actual wave, and these cannot be seen by the other participants unless you want them to.

See related:

Is Google Wave the Solution to Social Network Over-Sharing?

Google's Wave Consolidates Core Online Features in One Tool

Is Google Wave a Twitter Killer?

While at its most basic Google Wave can be seen as a combination of instant messaging and e-mail, there is a lot more going on. New participants can be added to a wave at any time either by clicking "Add" on the wave or dragging and dropping a contact from the Contacts pane on the left to the wave.

Once a wave is in progress, users can add pictures by simply dragging them into the wave. These will progressively download, so that the thumbnails of the pictures appear instantly, while the full image is loaded in the background. Users can also conduct "quiet" conversations with one or two other participants within the actual wave, and these cannot be seen by the other participants unless you want them to.

See related:

Is Google Wave the Solution to Social Network Over-Sharing?

Google's Wave Consolidates Core Online Features in One Tool

Is Google Wave a Twitter Killer?

A closer look at a wave.

See related:

Is Google Wave the Solution to Social Network Over-Sharing?

Google's Wave Consolidates Core Online Features in One Tool

Is Google Wave a Twitter Killer?

If participants are involved in a wave at the same time, they can see each other typing. Like the ICQ days of yore, text appears in the window as it is typed to be seen by all who are involved in the wave. This feature can be turn off thanks to a Draft mode.

Another handy feature is the ability to automatically correct misspelt text. Affectionately dubbed "Spelly" by Sydney-based Google engineers, the Wave gadget will automatically change text if misspelt, and can even recognise how a word is supposed to be spelt based on context within the sentence. A Google engineer demoed this by typing in "Ickland is an ickland"; Google Wave automatically changed this to "Iceland is an island" based solely on context.

See related:

Is Google Wave the Solution to Social Network Over-Sharing?

Google's Wave Consolidates Core Online Features in One Tool

Is Google Wave a Twitter Killer?

Google Maps embedded into a wave.

See related:

Is Google Wave the Solution to Social Network Over-Sharing?

Google's Wave Consolidates Core Online Features in One Tool

Is Google Wave a Twitter Killer?

Google engineers demonstrated the potential for third-party development with a Twitter gadget. This gadget incorporates your Twitter feed into a separate Wave and even allows you to tweet from the wave. The tweet is then incorporated into the standard Twitter language protocol and sent as a normal tweet.

See related:

Is Google Wave the Solution to Social Network Over-Sharing?

Google's Wave Consolidates Core Online Features in One Tool

Is Google Wave a Twitter Killer?