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"What Google has done with the Wave protocol is essentially create a new kind of social media format that is distinctively different from blogs, wikis, activity streams, RSS, or most familiar online communication models except possibly IM. Both blogs and wikis were created in the era of page-oriented Web applications and haven't changed much since. In contrast, Google Wave is designed for real-time participation and editing of shared conversations and documents and is more akin to the simultaneous multiuser experience of Google Docs than with traditional blogs and wiki editing. Though Google is sometimes criticized for missing the social aspect of the Web, that is patently not the case with waves, which are fundamentally social in nature. Participants can be added in real-time, new conversations forked off (via private replies), social media sharing is assumed to be the norm, and connection with a user's contextual server-side data is also a core feature including location, search, and more. The result is stored in a persistent document known as a wave, access to which can be embedded anywhere that HTML can be embedded, whether that's a Web page or an enterprise portal. Users can then discover and interact with the wave, joining the conversation, adding more information, etc. Google has also leveraged its investments in Google Gadgets and OpenSocial, two key technologies for spreading online services beyond the original boundaries of the sites they came from. All in all, Google Wave is a smart and well-constructed bundle of collaborative capabilities with many of the modern sensibilities we've come to expect in the Web 2.0 era including an acutely social nature, rapid interaction, and community-based technology."

To make sense of it all, we have compiled key information, definitions, and links related to the launch of Google Wave. This in-depth guide provides an overview of Google Wave, discusses the terminology associated with it, details information on Google Wave applications

You can define a robots behavior in the google wave chat... From Mashable: "Robots are the other type of Google Wave extension. Robots are like having another person within a Google Wave conversation, except that they're automated. They're a lot like the old IM bots of the past, although far more robust. Robots can modify information in waves, interact with users, communicate with others waves, and pull information from outside sources. Because it acts like a user, you can define its behavior based on what happens in the chat. You could build one as simple as "change the word dog to the word cat" or one as complex as a fully-functional debugger. We'll probably start seeming some very advanced robots in the near future."

You can define a robots behavior in the google wave chat... hmmm... From Mashable: "Robots are the other type of Google Wave extension. Robots are like having another person within a Google Wave conversation, except that they're automated. They're a lot like the old IM bots of the past, although far more robust. Robots can modify information in waves, interact with users, communicate with others waves, and pull information from outside sources. Because it acts like a user, you can define its behavior based on what happens in the chat. You could build one as simple as "change the word dog to the word cat" or one as complex as a fully-functional debugger. We'll probably start seeming some very advanced robots in the near future."

The Official Google Blog reports that Google detected a "highly sophisticated and targeted attack" originating in China against them and against at least 20 other large business. Google says they have "evidence to suggest that a primary goal of the attackers was accessing the Gmail accounts of Chinese human rights activists." Google says "We have decided we are no longer willing to continue censoring our results on Google.cn, and so over the next few weeks we will be discussing with the Chinese government the basis on which we could operate an unfiltered search engine within the law, if at all. We recognize that this may well mean having to shut down Google.cn, and potentially our offices in China."

"Google has unveiled plans today to allow Google Docs to store any type of files, and revealed a new tool from Memeo to enable users to access, migrate, and synchronize files between their desktop and Google Docs. " (Snc tool is for Google Apps Premium only). Getting to be a more attractive option...

Yes.. That is something I'd really like to use. My laptop warranty is out, they won't sell me any more extensions, one hard disk is loosing more and more sectors (and Maylee pulled off the right ALT key last night). Now only if Google Mail enabled me to build a number of views (filters) of my email (not just one), and Docs had inline revision viewing, I'd be ready to use it more. As it is, I use a variety of office apps because each seems to have strengths in different areas. I sometimes even move between apps with the same document. Mostly, I use OpenOffice, Google Docs, Microsoft Office, and LyX. LyX is the most philosophically advanced, I think.... but none escape the subjectivity of the matter. LyX removes any concern for how the document looks. You tell it what each information element is, not how it should look. Then you export to various formats and styles. Information search is vastly more powerful when all information elements are tagged according to what they are. And it produces just very beautiful content. OpenOffice has the broadest set of import/export capabilities and also with the best quality results, I'd say. All tables in all document types being accessible as database tables is also sometimes useful, as well as a variety of other capabilities. Google Docs is obviously best at collaboration but I find it sometimes frustrating to get formatting I want or working with revisions from others and myself. Microsoft Office is pretty high quality and full featured, as most realize, but lacks in import/export quality in comparison with some alternatives.

the concept behind Google Wave is to "unify" communication on the web. It's a hybrid of email, web chat, IM, and project management software. It features the ability to replay conversations because it records the entire sequence of communication, character by character. Because of this, discussions are also live in Google Wave: you will see your friends type character-by-character. The features don't stop there, either. Google Wave also supports the ability to drag attachments from your desktop into Google Wave. It loads that file and sends it immediately to anyone in the conversation. It's also embeddable, so you can embed Google Wave conversations on any blog.

looks like Google has officially adopted Helen Barrett's method of e-portfolios with Google apps. Posted on "Googlel Docs Blog"

looks like google has officially adopted Helen Barrett's method of e-portfolios with Google apps. Posted on "Google Docs Blog"

Google Gadget Ventures is a new Google pilot program dedicated to helping developers create richer, more useful gadgets. Inspired by the success of iGoogle, which has been driven by the creation by 3rd-party developers of a broad range of gadgets, Gadget Ventures provides two types of funding: Grants of $5,000 to those who've built gadgets we'd like to see developed further. You're eligible to apply for a grant if you've developed a gadget that's in our gadgets directory and gets at least 250,000 weekly page views. To apply, you must submit a one-page proposal detailing how you'd use the grant to improve your gadget. Seed investments of $100,000 to developers who'd like to build a business around the gadgets platform. Only Google Gadget Venture grant recipients are eligible for this type of funding. Submitting a business plan detailing how you plan to build a viable business around the gadgets platform is a required part of the seed investment application process. It's our hope that Google Gadget Ventures will give developers the opportunity to create a new generation of gadgets to benefit users. ---------- Consider this form of authentic assessment and the metrics they apply.

Google I/O offered 80+ sessions featuring technical content on Google Wave, Android, App Engine, Chrome, Google Web Toolkit, AJAX APIs, and many more. The session videos are now posted online.

Google engineer David Wang explains how collaborative editing through concurrency control and operational transform work in Google Wave.

Under-the-hood (but very general) description of how Google wave handles concurrent edits.

Four Google executives are facing criminal charges - which might result in jail time - because of an offensive video posted on Google Video in 2006, although none of them had directly handled the video in question.

Like Chrome Frame, another attempt by Google to bypass browser limitations. "Use Google Docs to quickly view documents online without leaving your browser. PDF documents, PowerPoint presentations, and TIFF files are supported" Enter a URL anywhere on the web and get a link for an embedded view of the doc

Use Google Docs to quickly view documents online without leaving your browser. Enter a document URL below to generate a link to view it PDF documents, PowerPoint presentations, and TIFF files are supported

"Google and the WPP Group have teamed up to create a new research program to improve understanding and practices in online marketing, and to better understand the relationship between online and offline media. The Google and WPP Marketing Research Awards Program expects to support up to 12 awards in the range from $50,000 to $70,000. Awards will be in the form of unrestricted gifts to academic institutions, under the names of the researchers who submitted the proposal. Award recipients will be invited to participate in a meeting highlighting work in this area and will be encouraged to make their results available online and in professional publications."

ePortfolio Mash Up with GoogleApps Helen Barrett is experimenting with google a lot lately. This page contains some good "How To" resources along with the discussion of google eportfoilo mashup

Google decided to close many services that were either redundant, not very successful or unrelated to Google's core business.

Creating an Interactive Portfolio with Google Sites Process of Creating an Electronic Portfolio - Using examples from my Google Sites portfolio developed by Helen C. Barrett, Ph.D.

This article compares the Google index rating of canditates who allowed the posting of voter generated content on their site with those that didn't. In other words: Web 2.0 vs. Web 1 approach relative to the number of pages google had indexed from the site.

"# Google says hackers from China got into its Gmail system # Bruce Schneier says hackers exploited feature put into system at behest of U.S. government # When governments get access to private communications, they invite abuse, he says # Government surveillance and control of Internet is flourishing, he says"

A security expert looks at who's spying on whom... (hint: it's not just China)

But China is clearly among the most aggressive in this area. I remember being taught in the military that most espionage is industrial (by governments for industry) but Universities are also targets for various classified research, such as DARPA funded research. I think of perhaps shock physics, for example. Certain kinds of spying are essential for peace--that which is to determine "intent" of the other helps eliminate the ill-affects of paranoia. Other kinds can be detrimental to peace, such as China's many successful attempts at acquiring U.S. military technological and operational information.

Learn more about how Google Books works and the recent settlement agreement between Google and a broad class of authors and publishers.

"Google has made a fortune by understanding what makes people happy when they're looking for advertising and online search, but it still feels it needs to know more. Its latest solution: fund grants so that the best and brightest of the academic world explore the areas it's interested in."

an interesting post about Google Wave and academic document collaboration