Why Google Wave is the Next Big Thing

Since its public unveiling at Google I/O, Google Wave has generated tremendous buzz. The newest Google project is a blend of instant messaging, email, and collaborative document creation. It is an ambitious undertaking, and grokking it fully takes some time. This video of Google Wave’s unveiling is over an hour long.

It is a video worth watching, because it shows the breadth of Google’s vision. I am reminded of the early days of the Web, when explaining technology we now take for granted required lots of metaphors, hand gestures, and labored explanation. Then, as now, the best way to explain a new technology is to show it in action.

What is most impressive about Google Wave is its scope. While the application itself garners the most attention, the real power lies in the foundation. Protocols are the vehicles by which messaging on the Internet takes place. For example, HTTP (HyperText Transfer Protocol) is used by web servers. SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol) is used to send email. The Google Wave Federation Protocol is an extension of an existing protocol called XMPP (Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol) Core. Google’s intention is to make this protocol the foundation of a new class of messaging systems, and their patent license is explicitly designed to keep competing users of the protocol honest (my italics):

Subject to the terms and conditions of this License, Google and its affiliates hereby grant to you a perpetual, worldwide, non-exclusive, no-charge, royalty-free, irrevocable (except as stated in this License) patent license for patents necessarily infringed by implementation of this specification. If you institute patent litigation against any entity (including a cross-claim or counterclaim in a lawsuit) alleging that the implementation of the specification constitutes direct or contributory patent infringement, then any patent licenses for the specification granted to you under this License shall terminate as of the date such litigation is filed.

A set of APIs (Application Programming Interfaces) sit on top of the Google Wave Federation Protocol. They allow developers to build new features into Google Wave applications and extend Google Wave functionality to other apps. This is where the magic happens. Google, as powerful as it is, doesn’t have an infinite supply of developers. They also can’t anticipate all the things end users might want from Google Wave. But an army of motivated third-party developers will take the APIs and create all kinds of interesting and useful new services, the way they have with Google Maps and APIs from Amazon, eBay, Netflix, and other savvy companies.

Many tech observers are making the mistake of focusing on the latest web applications, rather than on the APIs. Twitter is perhaps the best example of this: A minority of Twitter traffic moves through the Twitter website. Dozens of Twitter clients and mashups account for the majority. Because Twitter made the API available early in the game, it captured developer mindshare. A thousand flowers bloomed, and now Twitter is on desktops, laptops, Blackberry handhelds, Android devices, and iPhones.

Email has become unwieldy, particularly in business settings. Instant messaging is hampered by conflicting standards and limited extensibility. Document collaboration systems are fast improving, but they require initial intention; a Google Wave can effortlessly morph from conversation into document. The Google dev team also paid attention to making Google Wave play well with existing technologies. Developers and end users won’t have to shift over to Google Wave wholesale in order to start benefiting from it.

I expect to see a broad range of Google Wave applications not long after its official launch. Some of them will incorporate all or most of the platform’s capabilities. Others will be more lean and focused. There will even be Google Wave applications that provide interface polish and capabilities the Google Wave team hadn’t even considered. And that’s exactly why Google Wave will be a success.