Google Wave: the calm before the storm

It seems to be quiet on the Web about Google Wave after it's announcement at Google I/O 2009. But the developer community is all a-buzz and busy testing the alpha release out, as Google prepares for its official release later this year.

Here are some links to more information about Google Wave from those who have test accounts and are trying it out:

1. The Google Wave highlight reel: The full 80-minute demo during the conference is a must-see, but if you don't have the time, watch these chosen clips on the highlights.
2. Google Wave questions and answers: This is a Twitter Q&A session from someone not from Google, trying out Wave for the first time. Nice insights. The biggest fear about using Wave is how people could see all your typos as you enter text.
3. Google Wave: Our First-hand Impressions: ReadWriteWeb gives Google Wave a spin and describes their first-hand experience with it.
4. Testing Google Wave: This Thing is Tidal: Mashable's Ben Parr continues to dig into Google Wave and comes out with a very fair and encouraging assessment.
5. Trying out Google Wave (videos): This is a work-in-progress blog post with videos (which I admit I still have to watch) on developers trying it out. They also briefly talk about how since Google Wave is an all-in-one tool for anything, ambiguity about the purpose of communicating with someone could pose as a problem.

6. 1 Wave Sandbox, 5 Hours, 17 Awesome Demos: An account post-demo of Google Wave on the Friday after I/O, about 60 developers assembled down at Google HQ for the very first Google Wave API hackathon.
7. 6 Reasons Why Google Wave Will Change PLM Collaboration: PLM is Product Lifecycle Management (as I discovered in Wikipedia). This is a jargon-filled article that talks about how product development can become faster using Google Wave because of better collaboration.
8. Google Wave will change the world: I included this article because the author and I have very similar sentiments (and his name also has Lawrence). Though I recognize that the revolution could take years to happen (much like how email started), it will happen.
9. Request for Google Wave preview access: Here's Google's link for those who want IN at the soonest possible time. Let's sign-up!

Google Wave: The Next Big Thing

I couldn't sleep. Since I heard about it yesterday, I just couldn't get it off my mind.

Google revealed yesterday what I predict will be the next big thing that will change how the world communicates since the invention of e-mail. It's called Google Wave. 

Lars Rasumussen, one of the guys who developed Google Maps, talked about how the idea came about in the Google Wave Developer Preview at Google I/O 2009. This was Google's answer to a fundamental question they posed: What would email look like if it were invented today?

Mashable offers to explain what Google Wave is in a nutshell: Google Wave is 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. You can bring a group of friends or business partners together to discuss how your day has been or share files.

In a few years, here's what I predict what will happen: No more e-mails. No more instant messenger. No more keeping of different versions of files in your computer folders. Much less face-to-face meetings. People working on documents or files together online real-time, even if they were miles apart or they were just beside you. Social network and blog discussions will look like everyone typing at the same time on the same computer screen. No more reply button to send a message, just type. Lots and lots of online collaboration happening real-time. It's mind blowing.

And it's here. It's not a concept. Google has a work-in-progress already running. But we need to wait until towards the end of this year to experience it. Not too far off.

Below is a screenshot of the Google Wave interface. Mind you, it runs on the browsers that we use today -- both on computers and mobile phones:

Can't wait to see it in action? Here's the demo from the developers conference: (It might take long to load. Everyone's on it.)

I'll write more about it in the next few days. Still trying to calm myself from too much excitement.