NEWS
...Wave will eventually have its own app store, similar to the one offered for Apple's iPhone, where developers will sell Wave apps to businesses and consumers.
Unsurprisingly, technology companies are already creating their own apps.
ERP software maker SAP has designed an app called Gravity, which allows companies to collaborate on drafting business processes.
Wave apps are also already making ripples within two of Google's fellow web 2.0 pioneers, Wikipedia and software-as-a-service specialist Salesforce.com.
Engineers working on MediaWiki, the software that powers Wikipedia, are developing a Wave app that would allow people to collaborate on updating Wikipedia pages in real-time and Salesforce is looking at how to use Wave to improve collaboration with its customers.
Google Wave is still not fully open to the public, with access restricted to those who have received invites from the search giant.
Late last month, it significantly expanded its user base by sending out invites to 100,000 new users.
"We are in a fun place where every day we will send out an invite for more people and break the system so we can see where the bottlenecks lie and fix them," Rasmussen said.
The number of users is expected to grow to millions by early next year, he said, and, if all goes to plan, Google Wave should be released to the public "at the end of next year".
Wave's user base may be expanding but, as with many other non-search Google products, questions have been asked over how the service will contribute to the company's coffers.
Google's revenues of $4.38bn for the latest financial quarter mean that Mountain View can afford to - as Rasmussen puts it - "not worry about how to monetise products so early on".
However he is confident Google Wave will earn its keep as an important part of its cloud-based app suite it sells to businesses.
"I am 100 per cent sure that Wave will be part of Google Apps Premier Edition and that it will drive sales," he said.
Comments
There are 2 comments. Join the discussion
1. Stef Shoffren at Avanade
On first glance, Google Wave is customisable, easy to use and visually pleasing, essentially everything you’d look for in a collaboration platform.
However, it’s highly unlikely to derail SharePoint’s dominance in the enterprise space. Being such a new development it’s almost impossible to compare the two at this stage.
SharePoint has richer apps, a proven heritage and a partner engagement model more substantive than anything Google Wave can muster at present.
Any immature technology needs to lay foundations before it builds an enterprise following. Google Wave is trying to emulate the Microsoft model by providing a framework platform, and expecting others to fill gaps. But, at present, there are too many gaps to fill to make it instantly usable– a factor paramount for enterprise take-up.
Mobile workers, geographically dispersed employees, or staff situated in areas of low bandwidth will find it difficult to participate in conversations. You need to be online constantly to contribute.
Implementers of Google Wave should seriously consider the security implications of deploying within an enterprise.
With IM, blogging, Twitter and email, we are used to typing, checking, then hitting ‘send’. Google Wave dictates in real time, like a stream of consciousness. Once a comment has been made, whether innocent or malicious, the information is in the public domain, leading to a potential security risk. After time, users will learn to exercise self-restraint in their posts, but until then, the platform may reveal more secrets than a conversation by the office water cooler!
Google Wave will invigorate the market though. And Microsoft, HP and EMC will have to take note if this becomes the killer app for a new generation of Millennials.
2. Loz1
Interesting to see how this fares alongside Microsoft's social media innovations in Outlook 2010