I watched in full the video I shared with you in my last post. And boy, I have to tell you – Google Wave is impressive! Throughout the video playback, I had to constantly remind myself I’m looking at something that works on my browser – my Firefox browser. So which of Google Waves myriad of features I was most impressed with? Here’s my shortlist:
1. Organization. It’s amazing how Google Wave lets you manage your contacts and your communication trails from all over the web under one roof. Even your non-Google contacts can be centralized in one Google Wave account. You have to try it yourself to fully appreciate it.
2. Spell Checker. It has by far the best spell checker I’ve seen. It doesn’t just pull up a list of suggested words for you to choose from; it automatically makes the correction for you. How good is it accuracy-wise? It’s pretty darn good as its built-in spell checker considers the contextual use of the word for correction. Again, watch the video and try it yourself.
3. Playback. Whether you’re the wave initiator or a late participant, invited in by a colleague late into the discussion, whether you’re participating in a group planning session or editing an office presentation with a team or just planning a weekend get-together, you can playback any part of the entire wave you choose to see the entire flow of conversation.
4. Real-time exchange. In almost all cases, you see what your friend is typing as he does it; not when he hits the return key. This capability eliminates the timing difference you experience in many instant messaging services at the moment. It definitely speeds up conversation.
5. Total Control. Don’t’ like having your friend or colleague see you forming your thoughts while you’re typing them out? You can actually choose to have them see what you’ve typed in after hitting the return key. And even if you’re ten-man team is on a wave, participating in the discussion, you can reply privately to one or some of them without the others seeing that particular part of the wave. You choose what to share and whom to share it with.
6. Embed-ability. Fancy putting a wave on to a blog or a web page? You can do that easily! Google Wave can be embedded anywhere on the internet world.
7. Drag-and-drop feature. Do you want to share files or invite more people into a wave? You can easily drag any file from your local drives, or any contact from your contact list and drop those into a wave. That’s it! No file uploading and attaching. It’s pure ease.
8. Group editing. If you’re looking for wiki functions, Google Wave does it. Anyone participating in a wave can edit anything and everything within that wave. And if more than one of you want to edit photo captions or work on various parts of a project file simultaneously, you can all do so at the same time.
9. Games. That’s everyone’s favorite part of a boring work day, isn’t it? Online games keep many deskbound peeps entertained. With Google Wave, not only can you play online games with anyone you choose. But you can actually review completed games you’ve played using the playback button. It’s a great way to learn great chess moves.
10. Apps and Extensions. Google Wave developers encourage other geeks in the internet world to spice up the Google Wave application by adding in their bright ideas and building whatever applications or functions they like within waves. This is the fun part because this is the part that’s yet to come.
Everyone interested on the internet is excited about the possibilities Google Wave presents. Even if you’re not geek enough to build your own apps, the whole range of capabilities already in Google Wave is bound to change the way you communicate with the world. Hopefully, you can take advantage of it to grow your blogging business.
