100,000 fans join Google Wave test

1 October 2009 01:06am

One hundred thousand computer users have been given access to Google's latest gadget that lets a group of people chip in to create collaborative emails, documents and blog posts.

Google Wave creates a nerve centre for the most popular internet communication tools where users can get all their Twitter, Facebook and email updates in one place.

But the feature which has caused excitement across the technology world is the ability for people you invite to join a "wave" to chat, reply and even edit the document in real-time.

A wave can include pictures, text and diagrams and participants can reply at any time and anywhere within the message. There is also a tool to rewind the wave to see how it was edited.

Access is still invitation-only as the application is still being tested but the company has now asked another 100,000 people to join.

In a blog post Lars Rasmussen, who helped to create Google Maps, and who is the engineering manager for Wave said: "Some of you have asked what we mean by preview. This just means that Google Wave isn't quite ready for prime time. Not yet, anyway.

"Since first unveiling the project back in May, we've focused almost exclusively on scalability, stability, speed and usability. Yet, you will still experience the occasional downtime, a crash every now and then, part of the system being a bit sluggish and some of the user interface being, well, quirky."

https://www.google.com/accounts/ServiceLogin?service=wave&passive=true&nui=1&continue=https%3A%2F%2Fwave.google.com%2Fwave%2F&followup=https%3A%2F%2Fwave.google.com%2Fwave%2F&ltmpl=standard(Google Wave)

© The Press Association