Google Wave in Business

Google Wave is an Open-source
Google Wave is an open-source platform that is completely free. What more could you ask for in a product or service?

Communication
Rosy is a Wave-bot (currently unavailable in Wave Preview for the time being)  that translates users’ conversations. This is an amazing tool for both tech support, a global office which we cover further in the list, and world-wide market research.

Document Collaboration
Creating a wave (not Google’s Wave but an individual ‘wave’ to communication/collaborate/create in) to collaborate on documents is top of the ‘best features on Google Wave’ list. Possible to create public and private waves, add a small team, and limit who can see/edit/contribute.
This is great for inner office memos or if you have a team around the world and only want one document as an end product versus ten to compile. This also shows who edited or contributed what and in what order with the wonderful ‘Playback’ feature.

Wave Business Profile
Waves can be made public and the whole world (on Wave anyway) will be able to see it. Would be ideal to have a ‘Business Profile’ established to enable if any one is searching for your business on Wave, Profile could include your business name, address, contact information and office hours. With the great ‘map’ widget, it is possible to give customers a visual representation of where your business is located.
 With yet another great feature the ‘Yes/No/Maybe’ gadget. Can see a visual representation of each vote, who voted and even allow for comments under this gadget for all your market survey for your questions such as ‘Do you like our company?’

Email Marketing
Email marketing is a great concept and crucial to a lot of business connections. This way you can offer your customers outstanding and exclusive offers. A great way to implement email marketing into your Wave account is to create a wave connected to your business profile.
It is all free is the best part of it when compared to conventional email marketing services where you pay for your list and per-email you send
Save Time and Money : Inner office and email
Create a wave and add the document to the wave. Add your contact list ‘Editing Team’. Watch as your team responds in real time to your wave.
This saves resources that would have been wasted printing multiple copies and saved time by not needing to condense multiple responses you would have had to do with email.

Market Research and Polls
Possible to create another adjacent wave from your business profile and make the title ‘Which feature do you prefer?’ and write ‘One vote per person please’ Underneath your title, place several Yes/No/Maybe gadgets, with a name of a product or service over each one.
Also Possible to add your ‘customer contact list’ in Wave. See who responds, what they think and see how they vote. No data to condense and it is all available in real-time.
(A future bot that is currently being tested is Polly the Poll bot which enables you to have multiple answers for a question beyond Yes/No/Maybe Still in testing.)

User-Friendly
As a matter of opinion, but many find Wave very user friendly. It should be rather easy to integrate into your business.

Build a Global Team
A favorite part about Wave. Contact lists such as ‘Office’, ‘Edit Team’ etc. multi-lingual communication is a breeze with Rosy. All these features combine to make a perfect interface for creating global teams.
Possible to have multiple teams from all over the globe, watch in real time as they work on assigned projects, have condensed data and understand all users in your native language (thanks to Rosy). A favorite concept of Wave and sure! business will jump at the opportunity.

Monitor Work Performance
Work performance is always a big deal with businesses. Can make sure you have team players on your team, that there is equal contribution and that everyone is pulling their weight. With the playback feature, you can see who is saying/contributing/editing what and get a great way to keep your employees and coworkers honest

Wave Gadgets

A Wave Gadget is one of two types of Google Wave extensions. Gadgets are fully-functional applications. According to Google, gadgets are primarily for changing the look and feel of waves, although this seems to only scratch the surface of the potential of a wave gadget.

First: almost any iGoogle or OpenSocial gadget can run within Google Wave. That means thousands of applications that have been already created will work in Google Wave.

Second: a gadget built within Google Wave can take advantage of live interaction with multiple users. This means something like a live online game with active participation from all users.

In that way it has similarities to that of Facebook or MySpace applications, which take advantage of your friend network to make games, quizzes, and other applications to make them more meaningful and useful.

Gadgets are specific to individual waves, rather than to specific users. Thus, it’s not like having a Facebook application on your profile – the gadget belongs to everyone within the wave. They also do not have titles
to better integrate with the actual conversation. Some of the gadgets already built include a Sudoku gadget, Bidder (which turns your wave into an(auction) and Maps (which allows for collaboration on a Google Map).

Google Wave Terminology

Google Wave actually has its own lingo – yes, you have to learn a few definitions if you’re going to really understand this new communication platform. Having knowledge of these terms will help you understand more about Google’s newest project.

 Wave: A wave, specifically, refers to a specific threaded conversation. It can include just one person, or it can include a group of users or even robots (explained below). The best comparison one can make is that it’s like your entire instant messaging (IM) history with someone. Anything you’ve ever discussed in a single chat or conversation is a wave.

Wavelet: A wavelet is also a threaded conversation, but only a subset of a larger conversation (or a wave). It’s like a single IM conversation – a small part of a larger conversation and a larger history. Wavelets, though, can be created and managed separately from a wave.

Blip (BLIP): Even smaller than a Wavelet, a Blip is a single, individual message. It’s like a single line of an IM conversation. Blips can have other blips attached to them, called children. In addition, blips can either be published or unpublished (once again, it’s sort of like typing out an IM message but not yet sending it).

Document: A document actually refers to the content within a blip. This seems to refer to the actual characters, words, and files associated with a blip.

Extension: An extension is a mini-application that works within a wave. So these are the applications you can play with while using Wave. There are two main types of extenisons: Gadgets and Robots

Gadgets: A gadget is an application that users can participate with, many of which are built on Google’s OpenSocial platform.
A good comparison would be iGoogle gadgets or Facebook applications.

Robots: Robots are an automated participant within a wave. They can talk with users and interact with waves. They can provide information from outside sources (i.e. Twitter) or they can check content within a wave and perform actions based on them (i.e. provide you a stock quote if a stock name is mentioned).

Embeded Wave: An embeded wave is a way to take a Google Wave and the conversation within it and place it on your website. Users could use this as a chatroom, as a way to contact you, or for something more.

Google Wave Innovative Features

Google Wave has a lot of innovative features. Here are just a few:

Real-time: In most instances, you can see what someone else is typing, character-by-character.

Embeddability: Waves can be embedded on any blog or website.

Applications and Extensions: Just like a Facebook application or an iGoogle gadget, developers can build their own applications within waves. They can be anything from bots to complex real-time games.

Wiki functionality: Anything written within a Google Wave can be edited by anyone else, because all conversations within the platform are shared. Thus, you can correct information, append information, or add your own commentary within a developing conversation.

Open source: The Google Wave code will be open source, to foster innovation and adoption amongst developers.

Playback: You can playback any part of the wave to see what was said- a retrospective analysis

Natural language: Google Wave can autocorrect your spelling, even going as far as knowing the difference between similar words, like “been” and “bean.” It can also auto-translate on-the-fly.
   
Drag-and-drop file sharing: No attachments; just drag your file and drop it inside Google Wave and everyone will have access.

Google Wave : A new concept of real time communication platform

What is Google Wave?
It is new concept of a real-time communication platform. Combining the aspects of email, instant messaging, wikies, web chat, social networking and project management, Google Wave  aims at building one elegant, in-browser communication client. You can bring a group of friends or business partners togetherat one place to discuss how your day has been or share files.

Google Wave – Innovative Features
Google Wave has a lot of innovative features. Here are just a few:

Real-time: In most instances, you can see what someone else is typing, character-by-character.

Embeddability: Waves can be embedded on any blog or website.

Applications and Extensions: Just like a Facebook application or an iGoogle gadget, developers can build their own applications within waves. They can be anything from bots to complex real-time games.

Wiki functionality: Anything written within a Google Wave can be edited by anyone else, because all conversations within the platform are shared. Thus, you can correct information, append information, or add your own commentary within a developing conversation.

Open source: The Google Wave code will be open source, to foster innovation and adoption amongst developers.

Playback: You can playback any part of the wave to see what was said- a retrospective analysis

Natural language: Google Wave can autocorrect your spelling, even going as far as knowing the difference between similar words, like “been” and “bean.” It can also auto-translate on-the-fly.
   
Drag-and-drop file sharing: No attachments; just drag your file and drop it inside Google Wave and everyone will have access.

Google Wave Terminology
Google Wave actually has its own lingo – yes, you have to learn a few definitions if you’re going to really understand this new communication platform. Having knowledge of these terms will help you understand more about Google’s newest project.

 Wave: A wave, specifically, refers to a specific threaded conversation. It can include just one person, or it can include a group of users or even robots (explained below). The best comparison one can make is that it’s like your entire instant messaging (IM) history with someone. Anything you’ve ever discussed in a single chat or conversation is a wave.

Wavelet: A wavelet is also a threaded conversation, but only a subset of a larger conversation (or a wave). It’s like a single IM conversation – a small part of a larger conversation and a larger history. Wavelets, though, can be created and managed separately from a wave.

Blip (BLIP): Even smaller than a Wavelet, a Blip is a single, individual message. It’s like a single line of an IM conversation. Blips can have other blips attached to them, called children. In addition, blips can either be published or unpublished (once again, it’s sort of like typing out an IM message but not yet sending it).

Document: A document actually refers to the content within a blip. This seems to refer to the actual characters, words, and files associated with a blip.

Extension: An extension is a mini-application that works within a wave. So these are the applications you can play with while using Wave. There are two main types of extenisons: Gadgets and Robots

Gadgets: A gadget is an application that users can participate with, many of which are built on Google’s OpenSocial platform.
A good comparison would be iGoogle gadgets or Facebook applications.

Robots: Robots are an automated participant within a wave. They can talk with users and interact with waves. They can provide information from outside sources (i.e. Twitter) or they can check content within a wave and perform actions based on them (i.e. provide you a stock quote if a stock name is mentioned).

Embeded Wave: An embeded wave is a way to take a Google Wave and the conversation within it and place it on your website. Users could use this as a chatroom, as a way to contact you, or for something more.