Google Wave Invites Pouring

In my previous article I had mentioned me receiving invitation from Google for my Wave account on 30th October 2009. While I was expecting Google to send out next round of invites towards end of November 2009, they have proved me wrong. It seems they have sent another round of invites on 14th November 2009. Though this could be a part of delayed invitation process they started on 30th October 2009, what seems to be a coincidence is 2 of my friends ended up receiving their invitations yesterday.

This surely is a positive step coz most of the Google Wave account holders have been complaining about limited contacts in their Wave account thereby limiting their usage of Google Wave and at the same time many experts felt that Wave was loosing its fizz. Maybe its time Google went aggressive and offered invites to many more people.

Happy Waving!

More Google Wave invites.

As pointed out in one of my earlier posts, since the launch of Google Wave on 30th September 2009, Google has sent another round of Wave invites.

I was lucky enough to receive my own Wave invite from Google yesterday. This is exactly the same modus operandi which we had witnessed when Gmail was launched. In the coming year or so there is a high possibility that at least 50-55 percent of Gmail users will have their own Wave account.

Gmail has about 150 million users worldwide and with 20 additional Google Wave invites allowed per account, it wont take much time for Google to get their entire Gmail users to move to Wave. But lets not get too excited coz these invites will be sent by Google in a phased manner. There are also talks of Google replenishing invites of existing Wave users who have exhausted their earlier quota of invites.

One of the most notable things seen in the image above is 20 permissible invites which is up from 8 permissible invites at the time of launch. Also, for those who may not know email id for wave accounts are xyz@googlewave.com

Happy waving!

Will Gmail sink in the Wave?

On 27th May 2009 Google publicly demonstrated Google Wave for the first time at the Google I/O conference in San Francisco. This product was touted as "the email of the future". With Google Wave, Google tried to reinvent the inbox, blend e-mail, instant messaging and many more features. The very basic premise on which this product was born was how email would look if it was born today instead of 50 years back.

Now that the baby is born and we are looking at the possible present form of email service, would Google go ahead and kill Gmail? In the long run it would obviously not make any sense for Google to run 2 different websites. Promoting 2 separate brands offering the same core value is always gonna be a costly affair. Look at Android, after launching it Google decided to have Chrome OS. Eventually it will just have Chrome as their standard OS for all the platforms.

Make no mistakes, I am not suggesting that Google will replace our email ids to xyz@gwave.com coz replacing millions of email ids would be a daunting task. What we may end up witnessing is a convergence of Wave and Gmail. To make Google Wave universally acceptable, Google may discontinue www.gmail.com and force us to visit wave.google.com for login. This maybe the only change, but this one change may be bring up huge opportunities for Google. It may help them beat Yahoo, MSN, etc. in IM service. It may help them manage the increasing threat from facebook and twitter.

So is it time to say bye bye Gmail???

Google Wave Review

Following are 2 of the many reviews available online about Google Wave. There is a cool video too. Enjoy!!!

Google Wave crashes on beach of overhype
I just got my Google Wave invite. No, I’m already out, so I can’t send one to you, sorry.

But this service is way overhyped and as people start to use it they will realize it brings the worst of email and IM together: unproductivity. Click here to read more


Google Wave: Early Impressions
.....Just be aware this useful and potentially nifty tool will probably not, in fact, change life on the planet as we know it. And if by some chance it will, it’s going to change it in a bland and practical way. In short: perspective would be nice. Click here to read more

More Google Wave invitations expected before 31st October 2009?

Lets first try and understand how Gmail invitations evolved over the years.

Gmail
Gmail was a project started by Google developer Paul Buchheit several years before it was announced to the public. Initially the software was available only internally as an email client for Google employees.

The project initially was known by the code name Caribou, a reference to a Dilbert comic strip about Project Caribou.

For Gmail, Google started a unique way to offer access to public viz. through invites. To cut down on spam in the early days, Google used viral marketing by allowing only existing users to invite new users.

* On 21st March 2004 Google invited about 1,000 employees, friends, and family members to become beta testers.
* On 25th April 2004 active users from the Blogger.com community were offered the chance to participate in the beta-testing.
* On 1st May 2004 one round of invitations was sent out to all active users which they could extend to their friends.
* On 1st June 2004 another three invitations were given to all active members.
* By mid-June 2004, the number of invitations had increased, with many users receiving between three and five daily.
* On 2nd February 2005 the invitation interface was changed to make it easier to give invitations by simply entering an e-mail address.
* On 3rd February 2005 some Gmail users were awarded 50 invitations and later it was increased to 100 invitations
* On 7th February 2007 - It was made public and anyone could vist gmail.com and register for their Gmail account without the need for any invite.

Google Wave
Google Wave is "a personal communication and collaboration tool" announced by Google at the Google I/O conference on May 27, 2009.

* On 28th May 2009 started allowing developers to send requests for sandbox account.
* By July 2009 Google Wave had over 6000 sandbox account.
* On 30th September 2009 Google Wave was extended to about 100,000 users. Each of these users can invite 8 more users which takes the total strength to about 800,000 users. However, these users who do not have a direct invite from Google will not be able to invite anyone else.

Now if we try and draw a parallel between Gmail and Wave invites, its quite probable that before end of October 2009 Google may grant additional invites to all the existing 800,000 users of Wave and such grants may be given every month.

Bid for your Google Wave invite

With Google supposedly have rolled out about 1,00,000 invites today to access Wave, many not so fortunate can try and bid to get an invite.

Currently on ebay.com we have a seller who has offered to sell his Google Wave invite the current bid for which stands at $157.50 with about 31 bids. There are still 2 days left for the bid however if you are crazy enough to quote a much higher price, the seller is ready to negotiate offline.



Though Terms & Conditions of Google Wave clearly prohibit users from selling or trading the services for any commercial gains only time will tell if such bids/ listings get retracted and cancelled by ebay.

Seems the Google Wave craze has already begun.

Can Twitter ride the Wave???

With Google Wave being launched today there is buzz around that it may be the next Twitter killer. Wave is a one stop package offering a combination of email, instant messaging, and many other collaborative features. It offers a cool drag and drop feature thereby allowing users to share a piece of information, photos, videos, etc among other users.

Most of the features we see in Twitter today viz. search engine, search trends etc are already available with Google and they are the masters of it. Since Wave is their own product chances are that Google may offer much better feature than twitter. Also, host of other features like games, sharing videos etc may just make the entire experience much more exciting than twitter.

Google Wave goes live

Today, 30th September 2009, marks the launch of Google Wave.....lets not get too excited coz not everyone would be lucky enough to get their hands on Wave. Google has decided to go back the Gmail way of offering access through invites. Wave is a stunning product offering a combination of email, instant messaging, and many other collaborative features.

So how does one get access to Wave?
1. You signed up early for a Google Wave account : Anyone who visited http://wave.google.com and was among the first few to sign up to use Wave may end up getting an invite.

2. You have an account on the Developer Preview of Wave : For the developers, Sandbox version of Google Wave has been active for several months allowing them to test Wave, report bugs, and build Wave APIs. They will all get Wave accounts.

3. Paid users of Google Apps : Some schools and companies using paid version of Google Apps may get an invite to use Wave.

4. You are invited by someone using Wave : Google has gone the Gmail way of allowing users having access to Gmail account to invite friends and family to use Wave. Though the exact number of permissible invites per account is not revealed yet.

Google Wave to be launched on 30th September 2009

Google Wave is a new tool for communication and collaboration on the web expected to be opened for use to about 1,00,000 users on 30th September through invites.

Here's a preview of just some of the aspects of this new tool










What is a wave?A wave is equal parts conversation and document. People can communicate and work together with richly formatted text, photos, videos, maps, and more.

A wave is shared. Any participant can reply anywhere in the message, edit the content and add participants at any point in the process. Then playback lets anyone rewind the wave to see who said what and when.

A wave is live. With live transmission as you type, participants on a wave can have faster conversations, see edits and interact with extensions in real-time.

Here's how it works: In Google Wave you create a wave and add people to it. Everyone on your wave can use richly formatted text, photos, gadgets, and even feeds from other sources on the web. They can insert a reply or edit the wave directly. It's concurrent rich-text editing, where you see on your screen nearly instantly what your fellow collaborators are typing in your wave. That means Google Wave is just as well suited for quick messages as for persistent content — it allows for both collaboration and communication. You can also use "playback" to rewind the wave and see how it evolved.