Wave looks interesting, but on the whole it's hard to say until I actually use the thing.
Google is good about coming out with neat APIs and then letting other developers and sites integrate them and produce the really neat stuff. The Wave API docs actually describes the service in a better way than any of the videos do.
For example:
Essentially it's a way to do multi-person conversations in a linear fashion, with branching. But wait, there's more!
Quote:
Google Wave Robots: Overview
A robot is an automated participant on a wave. A robot can read the contents of a wave in which it participates, modify the wave's contents, add or remove participants, and create new blips and new waves. In short, a robot can perform many of the actions that any other participant can perform.
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So, not all the people have to be people. Some of them can be programs. Okay then. What else we got?
Quote:
Wave Gadgets Tutorial
Gadgets have emerged as the standard way to embed non-trusted code in Google web applications. In the Wave API, gadgets are the main mechanism for third party developers to change the look and feel of waves.
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Okay, now we know: The "Wave" itself is customizable using their existing Gadget API and such.
What else?
Quote:
Wave Embed Developer's Guide
The Google Wave Embed API allows you to easily (and quickly) add communication and collaboration tools to your web applications. The Embed API allows you to embed waves on third party websites, anywhere in the web, for easy discussion and collaboration using wave's cutting-edge user interface. Any conversations on those waves also show up in your Wave client, making Wave an easy way to aggregate conversations you care about all over the web in one place.
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Ahh, we can embed these Waves into our own sites.
So what do we have now? Basically, a multi-person branching communication system, with interactive programs to modify the conversation as needed, with customizable look/feel/interactivity, which you can put anywhere.
Okay, that's pretty neat. But it's still tied to Google and their App engine, right?
Quote:
http://www.waveprotocol.org/
Google Wave Federation Protocol
...
We want to expand upon that platform, which is why we've put together the initial draft of the Google Wave Federation Protocol, the underlying network protocol for sharing waves between wave providers.
Yes, that's between wave providers: anyone can build a wave server and interoperate, much like anyone can run their own SMTP server. The wave protocol is open to contributions by the broader community with the goal to continue to improve how we share information, together. |
Oh. Okay then.
06-03-2009, 06:44 AM
Google Wave 
Linear Mode
