Google Wave open to select Google Apps customers
Google said Tuesday that select Google Apps customers---notably some schools and businesses---will get preview access to Google Wave in the fall. Google Wave is a service that aims to reinvent e-mail, IM and group conversations into a seamless application.
In a blog post, Google said Google Wave will be previewed in the fall. The search giant aims to bring Google Wave to all Google Apps users in 2010. Google unveiled Google Wave in May at its I/O developer powwow.
Google Wave could be a critical addition to Google Apps and if it lives up to its advance billing.
Google acknowledged that "the product, platform and protocols are still being developed," but hopes that extending access to more folks can lead to more tweaks.
Also see: The enterprise implications of Google Wave, Meet Google Wave: a new way to communicate and collaborate
It's unclear what impact Google Wave will have on enterprise demand for Google Apps. Dion Hinchliffe wrote in a must read recent analysis:
Wave’s relevance to the enterprise might seem premature with so many of the early and current Web 2.0 applications (blogs, wikis, social networks, Twitter-style social messaging, mashups, etc.) still — often arduously — making their way into the workplace years after their inception. Though we seem to finally be hitting a tipping point with 2.0 tools at work, Wave itself seems credible enough to get on our watchlists, at least to understand the implications.
Here's Hinchcliffe's model of how Wave fits into the enterprise: