Google to begin opening up Google Wave for testing

Google announced earlier this month that it was going to start opening up Google Wave [1] for testing to some schools and businesses sometime this Fall. You might recall that Google Wave was announced to much fanfare at the annual Google I/O Conference [2] last spring.

The new platform is part communications tool, part collaboration platform and it enables you to work with Google Apps in real time while communicating with co-workers. Google describes Wave as follows:

"A wave is equal parts conversation and document, where individuals communicate and work together in a multimedia environment--the wave itself."

Google is looking for companies to test the technology, and while it's likely very early in the development process, ReadWriteWeb reports [3] that it's far more stable than early iterations. The article adds that third party developers have been hard at work developing add-ons for wave, which should enhance the tool even more. What's more, Google says, it has developed an API, which should enable enterprise users to integrate Wave with existing enterprise applications.

It should be very interesting to see how this develops over the coming months and it's something we'll be watching closely and reporting on as Google releases more information.

For more information:
- see the Official Google Enterprise Blog post [4]

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