An Idea On Google Wave

Google Wave is an application that is most hyped but not understood and accepted by other Internet users. It is one of the Google programs that has not reached the masses and, therefore, has failed to make a mark. The problem is that it is a collaborative and real-time communication software solution with no connection to its existing products. In this article, we will try to explain the Google Wave program and how to export your waves.

What is Google Wave? 

Google Wave was developed by the engineers who created Google Maps. Google Wave is a platform that helps you create your documents with other collaborators. Waves refer to the conversation that happens during collaboration. In the Wave, many users can converse as well as edit and modify the documents simultaneously. 

There is also an option to add images, audio, video, and weblinks and share a poll to Waves. By using a wave extension, users can further use all sorts of interaction tools. There is also an option of live typing, where other users can see all the content that is being typed in real-time. As defined by Google, Google Wave is a sort of mail service that would have been invented in this century, where live chats, video, audio, and other interactive media are quite common. 

Wave works much like the email service. For example, users can create a single copy that can be shared and edited through live discussions. It is quite similar to other applications because of the federation. Federation refers to the communication between web servers. If any company possesses a Wave server, it can also communicate with other servers across the web, regardless of Google. 

Layers of Google Wave 

As stated by Google, Wave can be categorised and understood through layers. Generally, it can be defined as a platform with a much broader context. It is defined in the following three layers:

Product layer

A Wave can be defined as a platform where people can edit or access waves. The application is built on the Google Web toolkit, and it works on HTML 5. The platform includes a rich text editor along with other drag and drop options. 

Platform layer

Wave is a platform that is rich in APIs. It can be used by any developer to embed waves in different web services. Users can also create new extensions that would work inside the waves. 

Protocol layer

It can be used for storing and sharing waves. It also includes live control options, which allow editing instantly, and all the edits done are reflected immediately across different web services and platforms. It is a program for open federation. 

The combination of all these layers makes the Wave platform accessible to many users with different degrees of technical knowledge. For example, an engineer can also use this platform to design and develop any wave service for any organisation. Also, a student with no knowledge about development can use this platform with the same features. Both types of users can collaborate. 

Walkaround of Google Wave

The Walkaround is some kind of variant that is based on Apache code. This variant can help in exporting your waves from one wave.google.com to the respective user. It also allows users to continue their project even if the Apache wave abruptly closes down. Users can also find some volunteer programs based on Walkaround servers and work on their own. 

Walkaround also supports a live collaboration experience with rich text editing diff-on-open, in-line replies, changing of user avatars, attaching wave gadgets, and searching for full text, among other things. Much of the coding done in Wave is not specified, but it is factored to be a separate, more general approach that helps in sharing live objects. 

Why Was Google Wave Shut Down? 

Google decided to shut down this platform in April 2012. The only part of the platform that was left was Apache wave, along with an experimental open-source variant called Walkaround.

Conclusion 

Google Wave was an application that worked for real-time collaboration between the editors who worked online. This application was developed by Google and was announced on 28 May 2009. Walkaround Google Waves is based on Apache Wave code, which also runs on App Engine.