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Google Wave: Collaboration tool now public

Eve — Thu, 20 May 2010 16:41:38 +0000

Menlo Park (ip-192.com): Google Wave, a collaboration tool that combines email, instant messaging and rich content such as video, interactive polling, and maps, has been released to the general public. The availability of the online tool, which Google described as "a new web application for real-time communication and collaboration," was announced during Google's I/O conference in San Francisco.

"Waves" are hosted XML documents that allow users to concurrently modify content. Any participant of a wave can reply anywhere within the message, edit any part, and add additional users at any point in the process. Team members are notified of any changes, additions or replies in all collaborations (or waves) they are actively participate. All changes are visible in real time if users are online, but they can be displayed in chronological order later.

Initially released only to developers, a preview release of Google Wave was extended to 100,000 users in September 2009, each allowed to invite additional users. Now, everybody with a Google account can sign in and start a new Wave.

On the first logon, a "Welcome to Google Wave!" will tell users that they can use the service for:

Live discussion: let everyone have a voice;
Task tracking: stay on top of who needs to do what;
Meeting agendas: leave a meeting on the same page;
Document creation: draft content and gather feedback in one place;
Brainstorming: let the creative juices flow;
…or just start with a blank wave and see where it takes you!

Google Waves can be confusing at first, but several videos available on YouTube explain how to use the service efficiently.

AOL has a new Friend: Facebook

Eve — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 17:16:52 +0000

New York City (ip-192.com): AOL has a new friend – Facebook. As part of an ongoing effort to improve its user experience, Internet company AOL announced that starting today users of its AIM instant-messaging service can chat with friends on Facebook. An upgraded version of AIM connects with the instant-messaging function on Facebook's Web site. AIM users can now communicate with friends who are logged on to the social network and available to chat. They'll also be able to import so-called news feeds and "wall" posts to AIM and export status updates, videos, links, and photos to Facebook.

The new cooperation between AOL and Facebook was announced shortly after Google unveiled a Facebook rival feature called Google Buzz, which allows users of its email service, Gmail, to send messages, photos and videos to one another and to Tweet them out on social networking site Twitter.

"Strategically, there's no doubt that there will be evolution," says Brad Garlinghouse, president of AOL's Internet and mobile communications. "You're seeing a more aggressive AOL taking smart risks and finding partners who are seeking to disrupt the market."

Excluding mobile services, AIM has currently about 17 million users. That’s a fraction of the more than 400 million users on Facebook. AOL launched a "lifestreaming" feature last year that let users see friends' latest posts on social sites like Facebook and Twitter.

Ethan Beard, Facebook's director of platform marketing, said in a news release that he hopes "other companies will follow AOL's lead and integrate their communications experiences with ours; now that our new Facebook chat API makes that possible.”

Gmail Goes Social like Twitter

Eve — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 15:55:37 +0000

Menlo Park (ip-192.com): Google plans to add status-updates similar to Twitter to its Gmail, according to a Wall Street Journal report, citing "people familiar with the matter." The new feature could go live as early as this week and comes at a time of hyper-competitive activity among social networking, media and search sites as they race to add features such as real-time results to attract new users.

Google already facilitates status messages that display under user names in the instant-message chat area of its webmail client. The new feature will allow Gmail users to view a stream of status updates from people they choose to connect with. It will also make it easier for users of Google's web-based email service to share links, content and media with friends from video-sharing sites such as YouTube, and photo-sharing service Picasa. Google has refused to comment; however, it is holding a press conference on Wednesday to "unveil some new products and innovations".

Google is facing increasing competition from the likes of Facebook and Twitter, which dominate the social web. “Anything Google does with Gmail should be seen as a defensive maneuver,” said Ray Valdes, an analyst at Gartner.