Preface
This book provides an in-depth look at Google Wave, a new platform that has the potential to revolutionize the way we communicate and collaborate with each other on the Web in real time. This new and exciting platform incorporates several mature and emerging technologies, including email, instant messaging, wiki, online documents, and gadgets.
Initially released as a developer preview, Google Wave is now available as a limited public preview, which means that the platform’s core functionality and features are stable enough for public use but that overall it’s not quite ready for prime time. As you will learn in this book, Google Wave is more than a product; it is a broad platform that also comprises a set of open application programming interfaces (APIs) and a network protocol.
This book has two primary goals. First, this book aims to bring you up to speed on the fundamental concepts of the Google Wave platform and to familiarize you with the Google Wave Client, the web app that allows end users to participate and collaborate via the platform. Second, this book aims to provide you with technical knowledge that will allow you to utilize Google Wave’s APIs to develop extensions and to embed waves in web pages and applications.
After you read this book, you will have a firm understanding of Google Wave as a pseudonebulous “platform,” the skills needed to participate in waves using the Google Wave Client, and the knowledge needed to develop various types of applications and solutions ...