Business 2.0: Why Your Business Should Care About Google Wave

Since its preview release at the end of September, Google Wave has barely been out of the headlines, being regularly touted as the future of internet communications.

Yet despite the hype only 100,000 people, worldwide, are invited to use its preview version, leaving the rest of us with a lot of questions.

What is Google Wave? How will it change the way we communicate and why should businesses be interested at this stage?

This week, the Business 2.0 column will take a look at Google Wave and why businesses, and others, should take an interest in its progress.

Internet Communications Born Today

Put simply, Wave has the potential to be a ‘game changer’ in the same way that MSN Messenger, Skype, email, Google Search, YouTube, eBay and others have shaped the state of the web and consumer habits today.

The principle belief behind Wave is to update internet communications. The founders saw that, whilst instant messaging and email are successful and popular, they were designed a long time ago and therefore to do not make the most of the web as it is today.

Wave is a difficult concept to grasp let alone explain but leading web technology blog Mashable succinctly described it as:

 “A real-time communication platform. It combines aspects of email, instant messaging, wikis, web chat, social networking, and project management to build one elegant, in-browser communication client.“

Next Generation Of Social Networking

Its feature-set and comments from Google indicate that Wave will take internet communications to the next level and, in doing so, will rival the established social network giants.

If Facebook is an ‘email-killer’, or ‘crippler’ (email is still regarded as more secure for important/business conversations) then Wave is certain to be a major Facebook rival and the nearest thing to a ‘Facebook killer’. If such a thing can exist for a social network with more than 260 million members, that is?

Wave features compatibility with instant messaging, email, wikis (see here for an excellent description of wikis for business), collaborative document editing and more - putting everyday web services and communications in one place. That’s not all, with third parties using the API (see next section for more) there’s no telling what services may be developed over time.

Facebook will need to adapt and this raising of the bar could usher in the next generation of social networks, with a clear impact on businesses and their communications.

Thirty Party Development

Perhaps the biggest potential driver of Wave is not Google itself but third party developers. Google has released Wave’s API, the source code, allowing developers to create applications and services to run and use the advanced features that Wave offers.

In a similar way to applications on Facebook and other social networks, Wave’s API will introduce new applications, services and technologies.

For example, TechCrunch recently revealed that Salesforce.com is one third party working with Wave, a clear indication of its coming significance for the business world.

Internet Communications Platform

Google Wave will begin life as a product but the overall aim is undoubtedly to make it an industry-standard platform for internet communications, ie, the product would run and host a user’s daily communication and activities in a similar way that a web browser navigates the internet – although the latter is a less complicated process.

Should Wave become the communications platform it is aiming for, and few can doubt Google’s ambitious plans given its track record, it would shape the way we communicate, consume information and work collaboratively – three essential elements of business and three reasons your businesses should keep an eye on Google Wave and its progress.