23 July 2009 | Author: Katie Todd

Google Waves on 100,000 users to test new tool

In the rush to get real-time, Mountain View must be all a-flurry with eager Googlers hurrying to perfect the search engine's contender in the real-time rumble - but the upcoming project is still a few months in the making.

Google Wave is the name of the new development and it looks like September 30 is the day that 100,000 lucky web users will get to go surfing for the first time on the embryonic programme. So what is it actually for? Well, anxious to get in on the real-time fever currently sweeping the web thanks to the popularity of sites like Twitter, search engines are discovering that more and more people want information from all sorts of sources popping up on their screens as and when events are happening.



So while Microsoft is working hard on incorporating Tweets into its Bing search engine, Google has gone a step further and has built a whole new programme where users communicate and collaborate online in a real-time community that will merge email, social networking, wiki and IMs - and is touted as the 'next generation' of online communication.

Although still very much in the development stage, Google Wave has a plethora of developers travailing constantly on the creation of new apps and programmes that will coax users into the new online ecosystem and change the way internet communication is carried out. According to the Google Wave Developer Blog, 6,000 developer accounts have been rolled out with a further 20,000 requests to be worked over.

However, Google spokesperson Sara Jew-Lim was quick to explain that Google Wave's appearance at the end of September still isn't a beta release - not yet, anyway. According to technewsworld.com, she stated: "We announced earlier this week that we will be extending this preview to a small group of consumers, but I wouldn't characterize this as a 'beta' release.

"The product will still be a bit rough at that point, and the team will still be working to ready Wave for a true consumer launch."

In other words, once Google Wave is ready to hit online shores, the sun will be blazing over at Mountain View - and industry rival Microsoft better have its shades at hand.

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