Does Google Wave mean the death of Gmail and Google Docs?

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	Does Google Wave mean the death of Gmail and Google Docs? Asked by : Viktor Stephen, COO, I Entrepreneur Industry : Technology Consulting Functional Area : New Technologies Keywords : google communications wave gmail google docs Activity: Question posted: 06 04 2009 06:19:52 +0000, 8 answers, 182 views, last activity 07 06 2010 20:18:08 +0000	Answer

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A few days ago, I wrote an article about the implications of Google Wave on the enterprise. (http://coffeewithviktor.blogspot.com/2009/06/google-wave-implications-for-enterprise.html)

The official google blog (googleblog.blogspot.com/2009/05/went-walkabout-brought-back-google-wave.htm...) defines a wave as "equal parts conversation and document, where people can communicate and work together with richly formatted text, photos, videos, maps, and more."

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.

I’m very taken with the big vision that Wave could really become the tool that unifies all your communication and collboration, where you can access your email, your instant messaging, your documents, your social networks, your blog comments, and more.

Although it's much too soon to really decide anything about Google Wave yet, but does this mean the phasing out Gmail, or phasing Wave-type abilities into Gmail and Google Docs?

Thanks for refering this to me Devi. It is an interesting concept the 'wave' or google wave. It will help in collaborative problem solving in real time. It can even help businesses like grade school coaching BPO's where the students can be turtored in real time. Now I think they write on a writing pad and transmit. Then in marketing where different groups or individuals can interact from different geographical locations, or in collaborative research and publication projects between Professors or R&D teams, the usefulness of this seems to be endless. Security can be a problem, where the master user can pick up sensitive information from the server directly which they might do for security reason itself and hopefuly ethics might rule over such situations. Benifits and usefulness of this technology is gong to be endless for business and Science or for any walks of life.

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by Mathew Cherian, Research Associate/Analyst, Western Michigan University | 06 09 2009 17:48:41 +0000

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8 Answers for "Does Google Wave mean the death of Gmail and Google Docs?"

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Answer modified by Inder Monga, Chief Technologist, Energy Sciences Network | 07 05 2009 21:13:10 +0000

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I have created a new community to discuss Google Wave (http://toostep.com/google-wave) and its related implications on Enterprise and personal life. Check it out.

Answer modified by Aviral Bansal, Product Manager, Tata Communications | 06 11 2009 19:38:41 +0000

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I won't be worried about phasing out of existing applications. They are going to exist. This concept is a layer or a mash-up over them. So the foundation does not move much... It stays. I would be more excited about how people will find innovative ways of using these existing applications to create bigger waves... :) I am happy how Google is exploiting the true potential of GWT with such innovative interfaces. The biggest challenge out here though will remain in terms of adaption and discovering the true potential of such a powerful colab platform. The challenge is in discovering the value which is unique to each individual and yet sharable and viral to be easily picked up by others. The critical factor will be their commitment to this concept and the amount of focus they put in to constantly evolve the platform. They have already released the API hoping that there will be a bunch of developers who will innovate using the open API to create evolved flavors. This has worked well in the past but not to the extent of achieving a tipping point (Google search definitely tipped over) where the application becomes a way of life.

Answered by Gargi Sinha, Senior Consultant, Hewitt Associates | 06 10 2009 12:59:43 +0000

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Nice insight Viktor...Google wave seems to be the next thing, but then Gmail has its own space,,,its human tendency to go for the new thing, but then there are people who wil stick to the older version, so lets wait and watch what happens in the coming days.....

Answered by Sivasubramanian , Senior Technical Recruiter, Wipro Technologies | 06 09 2009 17:26:26 +0000

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Google wave is really a good concept which could be mainly useful for business purposes. Like other goodle products, this will also be a successful one. But we cant say that google wave will bring an end to Gmail and google docs.

Answered by Devi Kaladeen, Audit Manager, Health Sector Development Unit | 06 08 2009 03:15:09 +0000

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Google wave seems to be a neat package and will definite attract the attention of internet users. However,while it is the norm for users to shift to new improved technology it does not mean that the older version will die a sudden death. Old habits die hard and some people especially the older folks will still stick to gmail since once you get accustomed to a system sometimes it is very difficult to change. Time will tell how the new system will take shape. Lets wait and see what happens when it becomes popular.

Answered by Dayanand Deshpande, Senior Consultant, Ernst & Young | 06 04 2009 07:05:38 +0000

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