How To Get Started With Google Wave – Part I: Basics
Google Wave is the latest sensation by Google that is destined to change the way we communicate and collaborate with others. Think of Google Wave as e-mail on steroids. While there are still a lot of people who are getting used to e-mail technology, e-mail has been around for a while and has its own short-coming. For starters, e-mail is very limited in the type of content you can send and receive from others. You can’t easily share multi-media files through e-mail. E-mail also keeps holding on to multiple copies of the messages you send back and forth. So it’s not very efficient in that regard.
E-mail is a limited form of communication. You can only respond to messages and not sentences or a portion of a message. You also can’t edit your messages easily. That’s not the case with Google Wave. Wave is an innovative protocol that facilitates more engaging conversations online and makes it much easier to collaborate and share information across a small community or a large enterprise.
In order to take advantage of Google Wave, you will need to apply for a Google Wave preview account. Google Wave is not open to the public yet, so you have to wait a bit to get accepted to the program. Keep in mind that Wave is not exclusive to Google, but it’ll take a while before Wave goes mainstream.
Once you are signed up for Google Wave, you are going to see your contacts who are already a part of Google Wave. Chances are there aren’t any of them. You can always import more users and even add contacts by hand. The same applies to extensions and gadgets.
Extensions are enhancements that let you get more out of your Wave experience. When you are accepted to the program, Google will provide you with a list of featured extension, but there are going to be a whole lot of third-party extensions in the future, so the sky’s the limit.
Creating a new wave is not too hard either. All you have to do is click on “new wave” button and add your contacts that you want to be a part of your wavelet. You can then add your content to your wave. As you can see in the above figure, you can respond to a sentence or a part of a sentence in Google Wave. Something that is not possible with e-mail.
There is a lot to learn about Google Wave. But the best step forward is by getting your own account. The sooner you start playing with Google Wave, the sooner you get used to it. Don’t forget to check the second part of this series for more tips on Google Wave.
