7 Must Have Google Wave Extensions

Posted on April 10th, 2010
A blog post by DN (1 Comment)

Google Wave is a great communication tool. The initial response when it was launched wasn’t as good as it was hoped, but I’m sure that it’s one of the first communication tools of the new decade, and it (or a variation of it) will someday (rather sooner than later) replace Email and Instant Messaging at once.

On Friday – Mar 12, Google launched the Google Wave Extensions Gallery, which you can access by clicking “Extensions” in the left sidebar. They are a great way to customize and improve your Wave experience, which, as you may know, is very important for any product. Firefox is the most popular browser not because of speed and stability (although that was the case in the beginning), but because of the large collection of great plug-ins. This is also the case for Google Chrome, and now, Google Wave.

There are currently only 20 extensions available at the moment (though they’re all great as they have a quality check in place before they’re admitted) and there aren’t that many Wave users, but I’m sure that will soon change.

For now, here are some of the best extensions that can really improve your Google Wave experience and help you personalize your waves even more. As Wave is sort of a closed system, I can’t link directly to the extensions. You’ll have to go to http://wave.google.com , sign up if you don’t already have an account, and check them all by yourself by clicking “Extensions” in the left sidebar, as I said above.

Video Chat Experience: This extension give you the possibility to use video chat in your Waves. And not only that, you can also personalize it and make it more fun by using some of the real time filters. A must-have extension that can easily replace Skype or other video chat program you were using until Google Wave.

iFrame Gadget: This extension solves one of the main problems of Google Wave, which is its closed nature (you can communicate with other Wave users, but there are no facilities to allow external access, yet). With this gadget, you can embed any web page into a Wave. You could, for example, embed a blog post, a Google Docs document or even an Youtube video (although this will be a bit harder).

Napkin Gadget: This extension gives you a whiteboard for your Waves, which is very useful when doing collaborative work (nearly all of the online webinar, meeting and team work services offer one). The Napkin Gadget offers you a basic version of the tool, but it’s pretty functional, and should be enough for most needs. It could have more drawing tools, though (I’m sure it will in the future .

MindMap Gadget: Mind maps are an important part of any online meeting or collaborative task. With this extension, you can care and embed them right into your Waves, plus you also have the ability to upload and download Freemind mind maps to and from your computer, which can prove very useful sometimes.

Waffle (Date-Picker Gadget): The Waffle extension offers you an easy way to find a suitable date for a meeting or other event with your colleagues, friends or team members. Just pick a few dates, and the other Wave participants can vote on the one that is most suitable to them, so you can find one when most people are free and can attend your event.

Pollo Gadget: This is a great extension that enables you to create polls on any topic for anyone using Google Wave. Simple, yet very useful in a lot of cases.

Take-Out Gadget: This is a great little gadget that helps you and your colleagues or friends order out whatever you want, whether at an apartment, office, classroom or an event. Everyone can make their own order and the buyer will know what to get without getting confused or forgetting something (like it always happens).

I’m sure there are more extensions coming for Google Wave this year. Just like the Google Chrome browser got its extensions capability just a year ago and now has hundreds of great ones available (which has made it more popular among users), so will Wave get some extensions without which users wouldn’t be able to live, which would make them stick with and use only Wave .