Google Wave: A Revolution

Introduced in May of 2009 to developers at Google’s I/O Conference, Google ‘s new communication tool, Wave, has promised a revolution to redefine online communication. Just don’t call it email. Now released to a limited population of only a hundred thousand online individuals, it has yet to be seen whether or not it will actually live up to the hype.

What is promised: Google Wave sports a competitive platform for developers wanting to bring their social networking tools into ease of use, becoming second nature to people communicating online. Imagine, typing a message to a classmate and mid-sentence, he is already responding to your question, not only with text, but also with pictures, excerpts from social networks (Twitter, Facebook, MySpace), etc. Amazingly enough, Google has even integrated mobile browser optimization, aka live communication over iPhone’s Safari browser, something not thought easily possible. However, with all of this conglomeration of social media, networks, and communication – all open-source (free), how do advertisers expect to profit from Google’s great new communication tool?

What is certain: Advertisers will have to adopt new strategies to reach consumers through the new service. With the amazing power of this technology, especially in the ability to create new plug-ins that allow multiple tasks (think iPhone App Store), advertising agencies will be looking for new, innovative ways to use this platform to its full potential. So students, start developing those ideas. Advertising agencies want to see how applicants can use new technologies to a client’s advantage.

In the long-run, we’ll have to see how well this platform is adopted. Will major computer makers Microsoft and Apple adopt similar technologies? If it’s anything like Gmail’s adoption rate, we’ll be waiting a long time. To be successful, Google will have to take a page from Apple’s iPhone App Store “playbook” and reach thousands of apps available and billions of apps dowloaded.

Thoughts?