100,000 users invited to beta test Google Wave

Google invited 100,000 users to beta test its Google Wave service yesterday, a comprehensive online communications tool that looks set to rival e-mail competitors and social networks such as Facebook and Twitter

Unveiled at a Google conference earlier this year, Google Wave is intended to be the ultimate online communications service - described by one Google spokesperson as "email for the 21st century."

Developed by a team consisting of Jens and Lars Rasmussen, creators of Google Maps, Google Wave is a real-time communications tool combining e-mail, chat and file sharing software that allows multiple users to interact at speed.

All users joining a 'wave' have access to conversations and files being shared, theoretically allowing groups of friends to catch up with each other and enabling business colleagues to make live changes to a working document. Google Wave can also be embedded into websites and allow users to develop their own applications, while Google's own arsenal of applications such as Google Maps will naturally already be available for use in waves.

The Mail Online reports that as of 4pm yesterday, Google invited 100,000 users signed up to the service's waiting list to try out Google Wave in its beta form. The service is expected to be introduced to the public sometime next year.

Google is touting its multi-faceted Google Wave service as "how email would look if it was invented today.

"It would be collaborative and there would be no barriers between live instant messaging, email and documents and so on."

Published by: D. Warburton

Published 1st October, 2009

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