The Wonder that is Google Wave & its implications on SEO

I must confess, I skipped the idea of even trying to write anything on Google wave when I first got to use it. What was my first reaction? To be honest, I was a little disappointed, and then suddenly excited, to some extent lost, and then bamboozled; next I got a little fed up and then unexpectedly keyed up.

Sounds crazy, already?

Well … welcome to the roller coaster that is Google Wave. A new entrant into the world of social networks and without a doubt it has got the potential to turn the internet upside down (along with having the potential to become the butt of a joke).

At the outset, it appears to be an advanced form (and a mixture) of IM, twitter and even mIRC, but as you keep exploring and delves deeper, your mind goes into a frenzy of ideas and possibilities that this seemingly simple tool can set up in the near future. Designed and described as a real-time communication tool (which it is), Google Wave can take electronic communication to a whole new level. Please note that I’ve used the word “can” because in spite of the amazingness that oozes out of this thingy; it is not yet decided if the cyber hoi polloi is going to embrace it or not.

I haven’t yet tried all those apps or gadgets out there, but the very fact that it is an open source (which allows developers to come up with extensions or embeds) ensures that we’ll be having plenty to explore in coming days. In short, Wave is essentially a shared place, an online lounge where the participants can do anything together (yes, anything). For a typical user, one can have real time chat with his/her friends, where any of the participants can drag and drop a side-splitting video in the middle and then the friends can have some LOLz watching it together, in the same way you can share web pages, games, documents, and all that, in the same window with incredible ease. The possibilities are endless for official or commercial usage, thanks to an inexhaustible supply of all those apps, bots and gadgets.

Coming to the effects it can have on SEO … Wave is Google’s attempt at capturing the social media market. It’s too early to say if they’ll be using the data obtained from Wave users to shuffle their SE results. Nonetheless, there are strong chances that they’d like to keep a tab on the URL’s and web pages being shared on Waves, along with the proximate text. Even if Google Wave can have no bearing on your SE rankings, you just cannot close your eyes to this ground breaking invention. One can safely bet that this avant-garde tool will be adopted by the majority of online users (at least those who have fast internet connections), making it an excellent source to communicate directly with your targeted customers and attract quality traffic. However, it will be interesting to see how Google deals with the spammers who I can see, are sharpening their knives after looking at the prospects