Google Buzz vs Google Wave

In addition to the business version of GAE and cloud storage GS, at the I/O conference Google introduced for developers the new APIs for GMail and Google Buzz. New GMail API allows developers to embed applications directly to emails (as gadgets). These gadgets are currently only available for GMail in Google Apps, and may be added by account administrator from Google Apps Marketplace. For example, Gist and Xobni gadgets display person social information at the bottom of email (as they do it in MS Outlook and Lotus Notes). The Manymoon gadget allows to quickly create a task or project from the email. Taking into account that virtually all enterprise collaborative and social tools use email for notifications, we can expect an avalanche of new GMail gadgets, as well as increasing popularity of this email service in the enterprise segment.

Only few days ago it seemed that Google Wave will be the next Google's big project for collaboration. But Google - is a free company, where several similar projects can be developed in parallel. Today Google Buzz was unveiled, and we think that this solution is even more interesting for business than Google Wave. First, because Google Buzz - is already working (during a couple of days it will appear in all personal Google-accounts and soon will be included in Google Apps). Secondly, because Google Buzz - is actually a part of GMail. So what is Google Buzz and how you can use it for your business?

Gartner has presented the second Magic Quadrant report for Enterprise Social Software market. Since last year 3 companies have appeared in the Leaders section, that was empty in the previous report: Microsoft (Sharepoint), IBM (Lotus Connections, Quickr, WebSphere Portal) and Jive Software (SBS). They are challenged  by Atlassian (Confluence) and Open Text that earlier this year unveiled the social module for it's ECM platform - Social Workplace. Not far from it - the main competitor on the ECM market - EMC (Documentum). We also note the stealth appearance in the Magic Quadrant of Google with its revolutionary products Google Wave and Google Buzz. In general, the social software market in the eyes of Gartner analysts still looks like a Brownian motion of unclear vendors.

An open source software engineer, Mohamed Mansour, has created an extension for Google+ Hangouts - Hangout Pad for Google+, which allows you to collaborate on the text (or program code) while communicating in video chat. Although this extension is still to buggy, it's very interesting for several reasons. First, it doesn't use the official Google + API (because it doesn't exist so far). Hangout Pad is a plug-in for Google Chrome browser and embeds into Hangouts video chat using a complex hack (via Google Shared Spaces and Google Wave protocol). However, this tool shows the opportunities of expanding Google Hangouts (beware Skype!). The collaboration window (in this case the code editor) is located above the user video streams and it can contain anything. In addition, it is a cool demonstration of the future integration between Google Hangouts and Google Docs.

Recently the new project appeared in Google Labs - Google Shared Spaces. Judging by the title, it would be a perfect add-on for Google Apps. Because after cutting Google Groups there is no more convenient way to quickly create a shared space (with  wiki, calendar, tasks, files, discussions). However, meanwhile Google Shared Spaces provides only the library of gadgets that were created for Google Wave (for example, "Sudoku", "Poll", "Map", "Whiteboard", etc). Only difference is that now you can use these gadgets not in "waves" but as stand-along objects on separate pages. You can create a shared pace using any gadget, invite co-workers and collaborate there. Each gadget contains built-in chat, so you will be also able to communicate.

Google has published its plan concerning the Google Wave. And this plan has returned us to the optimism, which we had after the first presentation of this revolutionary product. The company will release an open-source version Wave in a Box, which can be installed on your own server. This version will include the core functionality of the Google Wave and will support all necessary tools for developers - gadgets, robots and data API. Thus, instead of the single SaaS service, we will have a large number of corporate Wave servers, which can exchange data via the open Wave-protocol. And the further Wave development will be implemented by the companies and users themselves. Probably, this new strategy will be even more appropriate for the main goal of Google Wave - to kill Email.

Today, Google has announced that it stops further development of its revolutionary collaboration service Google Wave. The official reason - "service has not seen the user adoption we would have liked". Two months ago Google Wave was opened to public and included into Google Apps, but apparently, not too many people gave it a second chance after not successful beta-testing. Google Wave will continue to exist, but in the future it may be closed - i.e. the service will be in the same state, as Google Notebook (although still with new user registration). For those who use the service, Google plans to open source the code of the main modules (so that they could restore the basic functionality on its own servers) and provide tools for migrating data from Google Wave. And now about why this occurred with the service that was supposed to change the world:

Pretty silently (not like when beta testing was started) the revolutionary service Google Wave has been opened to a public and added to the business suite of Google Apps. Interest towards Google Wave has been reducing since the release of this service (about a year ago). The primary reason for this is its complexity compared to the direct competitor - E-mail. Besides Google Wave appeared to be buggy during testing and scared even geeks. However, now Lars Rasmussen, the Wave project manager, argues that Google Wave is ready for high load and performs fast enough. In addition, developers have simplified adding comments and search for new changes in wave. They also have corrected the lack of integration with email - you can now set the email-notifications about changes in waves (although you can't add comments in the opposite direction - from the email).

Do you still remember Google Wave? This is the super-service which is going to change the world. Why it hasn't done this yet? Because it's too complicated, so bugs will be being fixed for a long time and people will need more time to learn how to work with it. Google Wave was introduced as an alternative to Email. Instead of cumbersome email-correspondence all messages are located on the same page. Great idea, but first, the creators underestimated the people's affection to e-mail, and secondly, they overloaded this page with too many features. Unlike Google Wave, Threadbox is going to be simpler and works perfectly together with the e-mail.

Collaboration is not the primary specialization of SAP, so the appearance of 12Sprints, an enterprise Google Wave alternative, is pretty surprising. Even more surprising is that 12Sprints - is a SaaS application, and SAP is not very good in this sphere. As you know, their primary SaaS solution, Business ByDesign - is delayed for almost 3 years because of the SaaS platform problems. Unlike it, 12Sprints quickly entered the public beta stage (and everyone can use it) that is also very unusual for SAP. Usually they provide only Powerpoint presentations without screenshots. So SAP is making progress in this new field, though 12Sprints in general loses in comparison to Google Wave.