Google Wave Guide: Basic Tips and Expert Tricks

If any of Google’s latest services seem overwhelming, you’re not alone.  We’ve decided to sift through some – Google Buzz, Google Voice, and Google Wave – to help you make the most out of the search giant’s ever-growing ambitions. Debunked here: Google Wave.

What is Google Wave?

Equal parts Google Docs, Google Chat, and Gmail, Wave is a workspace where people can collaborate on projects in real time. For instance, families can plan vacations together or assemble a Picasa web album after a reunion. Businesses can use it to brainstorm or create shared documents, such as meeting notes. Whatever you’re doing, a Wave looks like a Google Chat conversation, only not everyone needs to be online at once for someone to contribute. And when a participant does have something to say, he or she can add photos, videos, and Google Maps, and format tI ext just as they would in a Google Doc. Finally, if you have more than one Wave in progress, they’ll appear in a Gmail-like inbox.

Caveats: Since Wave promises to make collaboration easier, it’s a shame that it doesn’t integrate with Google Apps, the version of Google Calendar, Docs, and Mail that’s aimed at businesses. So, unless you have a classic Gmail account (one that ends in @gmail.com as opposed to your company’s domain), you’re out of luck.

Getting Started: Wave is currently in a preview stage, meaning it’s invite-only. Go to services.google.com/fb/forms/wavesignup to request an invitation, or ask someone else currently using Wave via your Gmail account. The first Wave in your account will be a read-only welcome message with an embedded eight-minute video tutorial. You’ll also want to search your contacts to find out who else may already be using Wave. Starting a new conversation/project is as simple as clicking the New Wave button on the top left.

Quick Tips

• Invite people to work with you.
To add participants to a project you’re working on, click the plus sign near your own thumbnail photo in the upper left corner of the Wave. You’ll see a list of Buzz contacts, which you can whittle down quickly using a live search field. Unfortunately, you can only invite people in your contacts who are using Wave.

• Know your shortcuts.
Getting around Google Wave becomes easier when you know to double-click any part of the document to edit or reply. You can also hit the space bar to move through unread messages, and Shift + Enter submits a reply within a Wave.

• Share it.
Got something you think could be useful to anybody? You can make a Wave public by adding public@a.gwave.com to your Gmail contacts, and then adding this contact to the Wave you want to share.

• Try some extensions.
Like Google’s Chrome browser, there are now extensions designed to give users more ways to use Wave. For instance, one extension allows for video chatting, while a Sudoku game challenges users to solve a puzzle together.

• Take a poll.
By default a Yes, No, Maybe gadget appears in the kitchen sink of formatting tools at the top of a Wave box. Inserting this into the Wave gives you a quick, visual way of gauging your collaborators’ interest and opinions in what you’re working on.

• Get notified.
Since collaborators can edit a Wave while you’re not online, it’s useful to receive notifications when someone has edited the document. To enable alerts, go to Navigation > Inbox and click on the arrow next to it. Then, you can decide to receive notifications immediately, hourly, or daily (by default, you won’t receive any). You can also customize to which e-mail address these alerts are sent; it doesn’t have to be the one associated with your Wave account.

• Link up.
As a living document, a Wave can look something like a Wiki, full of links to other content. You can even link to projects and conversations from other Waves by dragging any Wave from the search box into the Wave you’re currently working on.

• Add Google search results in a flash.
When you press the G + gadget in the kitchen sink of formatting tools, you’ll see a pop-up box you can use to perform a Google search, clicking tabs for images, videos, and web results. When you see something you like, just click on the link or thumbnail, and it will appear in the Wave. Unfortunately, as of press time you couldn’t add multiple links or images at once.

You can find our exhaustive guides to more Google services below.

• Google Buzz
  As Google’s answer to Twitter, Buzz lets users do a lot more than just post updates.
• Google Voice
  Google Voice lets you make free domestic calls and cheap international ones from your desktop.
• Google Wave
  Equal parts Google Docs, Google Chat, and Gmail, Wave is a workspace where people can collaborate on projects in real time.