Google just sprung a couple of insane things on the world. One's coming up, one's already here. First, what I think will be really big as it's going to be free and will progress team-working in a variety of ways when it's released...
"Google Wave is a new tool for communication and collaboration on the web, coming later this year." That's the easy version of what Google Wave is. Don't be scared, it's not complicated! Google Wave is simply a way to mash a bunch of existing services to build a place where everything regarding a project/company/book report/you-name-it - such as e-mail, chat, files and embedded videos and pictures - is collected, without having to visit one site for each service, which is the way most do this today. And then you can't bind them together. Google Wave will seemingly simplify communication for teams, organisations and companies. Here's a screenshot that shows one possible layout of Google Wave.
Google unleashed this upon developers yesterday at the Google I/O 2009 conference. There's a very good video available here, that really explains the above better than most written words do. As you watch it, go to 03:00 to skip initial presentations, and then to 07:35 to see the first example of a wave. At 20:45 they show a wave in the shape of a blog - changeable from the main web page. Really cool.
I like the idea of Google Web Elements, allowing you to jam Google products into your web page. You can today quickly embed Google Spreadsheets and Presentations through Google Apps. On the other hand, I'd truly love the ability to embed Google Documents. Well, that'll come. In the meantime, I really hope Scribd pushes the envelope and builds further as this means stiff competition.
For instance, check this simple spreadsheet that I've collated, that shows interesting Spotify releases from Jagjaguwar, Secretly Canadian and Sub Pop.
Yep, it'll be interesting to see more Google web elements as they pop up.