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Extensions on Google Wave can be thought of like applications on Facebook or Myspace. Having applications on your Facebook account allows for a more complete experience, and in the same way, extensions will be devices that will enhance your Google Wave affairs by far. There are two types of extensions: gadgets and robots.

Gadgets are extensions that act like individual appliances within a wave. A couple examples of gadgets include the search engine within the waves and games such as Sudoku and Chess.

Robots are extensions that are actively involved in the conversation within the wave. One example of an amazing robot which was demonstrated in the Google I/O 2009 is a translation robot. This robot can translate forty different languages, and the coolest thing about it is that it translates word by word, character by character in real time.

There are no limitations when coming to variations of robots and gadgets. Since Google Wave is open source, as I’ve explained previous posts, any developer from around the world can create their own robots and gadgets. Because of this, extensions will enhance the Google Wave experience in ways we cannot even begin to comprehend.

This clip shows one of the major advantages of having Google Wave as an open source software. Before you know it, people will be using “Hotwave” and “Yahoo! Wave” like it’s yesterday’s news.

What does it mean for a software to be open source, and how will it shape the future of Google Wave?

According to OpenSouce.org, open source is ” a development method for software that harnesses the power of distributed peer review and transparency of process. The promise of open source is better quality, higher reliability, more flexibility, lower cost, and an end to predatory vendor lock-in.” This basically means that anyone can contribute to and critique open source software.

With Google Wave being open source, possibilities are endless. The way in which the creators of Google Wave, Lars Rasmussen, Jens Rasmussen, and Stephanie Hannon, developed Google Wave allows for developers all around the world to contribute to the software.

Some of the advantages of Google Wave being open source are:

-Just like email, developers can recreate various services for the waves.

There are many different services for webmail, such as Hotmail, Yahoo! Mail, and Gmail. In the same way, because Google Wave will be open source, developers world wide will be able to create their own webmail service as they wish. This will allow users to choose from their favorite, more suitable wave service for their own personal use.

-Anyone can contribute to the wave protocol.

This is a given, but as people start using Google Wave for various reasons, there will be a need for changes and adjustments to Google Wave. Because Google Wave will be open source, Google will not be the only one responsible for these improvements. Being open source, Google Wave will continue to improve appropriately to the demands of users.

-Endless opportunities with extensions.

More info on this will be posted in the future. For now, just know that extensions make Google Wave better, and the fact that developers all over the world will be able to create their own extensions add to the sensational quality of Google Wave.

What is a wave? What can you do within a wave?

A wave is a collection of information, such as text, photos and videos, within a hosted conversation that is shared among those who are invited in the conversation. It’s kind of like email and IM on steroids.

Some of the cool features are listed below:

- First of all, everything is real time.

The text that a person types will be available for others in the wave to see as the person types it. In the same way, a photo uploaded by a person will be available for others to see as soon as it is uploaded. There is no need for refreshing the browser to see changes within a wave. In the real world, no one waits for others to completely finish his or her sentence before replying, while people must wait for others to finish typing in an IM conversation to reply. Google wave eliminates the need to wait for others in IM conversations, bridging the gap between IM and actual, audible conversations.

- You can share pictures and videos through wave.

Through this nifty feature, users can create photo albums and share funny Youtube videos together. The best thing about this feature is the lack of difficulty it takes to post the pictures and videos. To share the photos, all you have to do is drag and drop onto the wave, or search a desired photo online through the wave. To share videos, a user only has to copy and paste a url of the site, i.e. Youtube, or copy and paste the embed codes.

- You can edit and comment on any text within a wave.

This is one of the components that truly make Google wave the ultimate collaboration tool. Unlike in an email, anyone within a wave can edit text within the wave. So students can critique and edit each other’s papers with ease. Employers can draw out a schedule for the month while the employees comment on when they would like to work. Colleagues can go over the same document and edit what needs to be edited, and comment on what needs to be commented on. There are infinite amounts of ways you can use wave: It all depends on your creativity.

- The playback feature adds the icing on the wave.

You may be asking yourself, “Well, what if I don’t like what others changed in the wave?” The playback feature silences this question. Through playback, one can not only see the progress of the changes made within the wave, but can also see who made these changes.

For those of you who do not have the time to watch the whole eighty minutes of the Google Wave Developer Preview, here is a brief summary of the presentation. More focused, shorter clips will be posted very soon!