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Google Wave: An Insider's Look
Chances are you've heard about Google Wave, a new online tool that was released in limited preview late last month to about 100,000 people worldwide. There is an enormous amount of buzz and excitement about this tool despite the fact that only a small number of people have actually been able to experience it.
Aristotle is fortunate to have a few members of our staff included in the initial invitations, so we are able to give you some early impressions.
Google describes Wave as "an online tool for real-time communication and collaboration" that enables people to work together "using richly formatted text, photos, videos, maps, and more."
It's those last two words, "and more," that you should pay attention to. Why?
Three reasons: First, it becomes clear after just a few minutes of use that Google Wave is going to be used by people to get together, collaborate, and make decisions about anything and everything.
Second, when it rolls out to the public, it is certain to gain many millions of users very quickly.
And third, it is open-sourced, meaning that anyone will be able to create extensions, robots and gadgets for it that leverage its potential uses in as-yet unknown and unheard-of ways (hence the "and more").
The bottom line is that soon many millions of people will be getting together online to make decisions about things like what product to buy, which college to go to, where to vacation, which doctor to see, and what investment to make using tools that are as-yet unimagined.
Got your attention? Rest assured that Aristotle is staying abreast of what is happening, and we will keep our clients informed.
This just scratches the surface of Google Wave, which is an enormously ambitious piece of technology. If you would like to learn more, check out this 80-minute demo video from Google.
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