One of the problems with Google Wave is getting started.  You open up a new Wave, and then what?  Google is hoping to address that problem with their brand new quick start templates.

When you start a new wave, you’re now presented with six options:

• A standard blank wave
• Discussion
• Task tracking
• Meeting
• Document
• Brainstorm

All of these are essentially standard waves at their core, but they pre-populate it with fields and widgets that would be useful for that task.  It’s not a huge step forward, but will certainly help new users when they try to make those first few steps.

Post from: Google Wave Info

Google Wave adds a few quick start templates

Now that Google Wave is running pretty smoothly, Google is starting to roll out some much-needed features.  Last week we saw the introduction of email notifications, and now they’ve released the Extensions Gallery.

Extensions are one of the pieces of Google Wave that are really neat, but had been a pain to use.  They were hard to find, and there really wasn’t a whole lot there.  Now, there is a simple “Extensions” link on the left side of your screen that will show you all them!

There is nothing to activate or enable.  Just log in and you’ll see the list.  As of right now there are 18 extensions in there, and I’m sure that number will grow.  Here’s the full list:

(note that the “Accuweather” extension is in there too, but didn’t fit on my screen)

So fellow Wave users, which extensions do you use?  Which one is your favorite?  What would you like to see come out next?

Post from: Google Wave Info

Google Wave unveils the Extensions Gallery

I’ve had a few people tell me they’ve gotten their Wave invite and then jumped in to check it out, but they didn’t really know what to do with it.  I’ve just put together a quick 4-1/2 minute screencast that shows some of the basics.  In this video, I’ll show you how to:

• Add contacts so you can connect with your friends
• Invite other users
• Create a Wave and add a friend to it
• Play with some of the basic extensions

It’s very simple stuff, but hopefully it’ll help you get your feet wet and start playing around.

You can watch the video here. (4:25)

If you’re still looking for an invite, keep following us on Twitter and we’ll post on there when we have more.

If you have other questions, please feel free to leave a comment on this post.

Post from: Google Wave Info

Google Wave 101

Google held a GTUG (Google Technology User Group) meeting in London earlier this week, where they announced that they’ll be building a marketplace for apps.

According to Lars Rasmussen: “We’ll almost certainly build a store…So many developers have asked us to build a marketplace—and we might do a revenue-sharing arrangement.”

This makes sense.  Even with only a few extensions available in the Wave “Extension Settings” wave, it’s a bit unwieldy.  Having a proper place to search, sort and sell them will make a lot more sense.

It’s certainly still a long way off — there’s still much work to be done on the core framework.  Still, it’s an exciting concept to look forward to.

Post from: Google Wave Info

Google Wave will be getting its own App Store