How to Understand Google Wave in a Nutshell

Simply stated, Google Wave is a real-time communication and collaboration platform that incorporates several types of web technologies, including email, instant messaging (IM), wiki, online documents, and gadgets. In more technical terms, Google Wave is a platform based on hosted XML documents (called waves) supporting concurrent modifications and low-latency updates.

Google Wave itself represents a new approach aimed at improving communication and collaboration through the use of a combination of established and emerging web technologies. Google generally describes Google Wave as a platform, and in a broader context, as a set of three interdependent layers:

• Product Layer
  The Google Wave product is the web application people use to access and edit waves. It's an HTML 5 application, built on Google Web Toolkit. It includes a rich text editor and other functions like desktop drag-and-drop (which, for example, lets you drag a set of photos right into a wave). Throughout the remainder of the book I will refer to this product as the Google Wave Client.
  
  
• Platform Layer
  Google Wave can also be considered a platform with a rich set of open APIs that allow developers to embed waves in other web services, and to build new extensions that work inside waves.
  
  
• Protocol Layer
  The Google Wave protocol is the underlying format for storing and the means of sharing waves, and includes the "live" concurrency control, which allows edits to be reflected instantly across users and services. The protocol is designed for open federation, such that anyone’s Wave services can interoperate with each other and with the Google Wave service. To encourage adoption of the protocol, Google has made the code behind Google Wave open source.

It is important to understand the significance of these three layers. Most people perceive Google Wave in a simplistic way, primarily thinking of Google Wave as a web application.

The reference to Google Wave as a "platform" in general terms (i.e., not in the technical definition of a platform, as stated above) is based more on the lack of other words that can adequately describe something as broad and new as Google Wave. Thus when someone references Google Wave, the connotation may be different, depending on the user and audience.

The combination of these three layers represents a fairly comprehensive offering that is readily accessible to a large number of users with varying degrees of technical proficiency.

For example, a software engineer might use the Google Wave protocol to design and develop an internal wave service for an organization, while a non-technical user might utilize the Google Wave product to collaborate on a project with other nontechnical users. The image below shows how each layer is represented and the likely audience that will utilize each layer.

Each layer in Google Wave has a different representation and a distinct audience. Note
that there are interdependencies between the layers, and subsequently, between the intended audience.



It's important to note that Google Wave is the branded name that Google uses to describe the product, platform, and protocol it has developed. However, because the platform layer is externally accessible and the protocol layer is open source, it is likely that third parties will offer products and tools that use names other than "wave" in order to establish new brands and market differentiation. In essence, these third parties will act as wave providers. Keep this in mind as Google Wave gains in popularity and different types of wave providers potentially emerge.