Firefox add-on: Google Wave Notifier

So... of course you are logged into Google Wave all of the time, looking for new blips in your wavelets constantly.
When, by chance, you have logged out, navigated away from Wave, or whatever, it would be nice to be notified when updates have occurred, wouldn't it?

Now there is the Google Wave Add-on for Firefox. It shows you the number of unread messages, and whenever new messages arrive it pops up a small notification window.

Go check it out at
http://thatsmith.com/2009/10/google-wave-add-on-for-firefox or install it directly by clicking here

Happy Waving!

Exploring gadgets in Google Wave

Since (almost) everyone has a Google Wave account by now, it's time to show some cool stuff you can do with it.
Basically wave is an extensible information bus. One type of extension is called a Gadget and can be embedded in wave messages (called blips). Here, we show you how to add them, which ones are cool, and where to find the complete list.

Adding a gadget

An external gadget is some form of functionality for wave that someone has published on the net. When you add a new blip to a wave, you can see the green puzzle-piece icon in the wave toolbar. Click on it, and you are presented with a URL dialog.
Enter the gadget URL (Our example is Pinwand: http://michael-hielscher.de/PinwandWeb/PinwandGadget.xml ) and click Add.

Now the gadget will load into your blip and you can use it. In our case, a pinboard is loaded to which all participants of the wave can post notes.


Cool gadgets

Here is a list of some cool gadgets to explore (which actually work):
* Pinwand Gadget - http://michael-hielscher.de/PinwandWeb/PinwandGadget.xml
Our example. With this gadget you can add a real time pinboard to your wave. Everybody can add messages to the board or give comments. The person who created the board becomes the administrator who can setup the board.
* Mind Map - http://cactus-wave.appspot.com/net.brucecooper.mindmapgadget.MindMapGadget/net.brucecooper.mindmapgadget.client.MindMapGadget.gadget.xml
Allows collaborative editing of a shared MindMap, using the wave's state to store information. Supports Drag & Drop, Import & Export, Icons and voting.
* Checky - http://wave-gadgets.appspot.com/checky.xml
Basecamp-like checklists with drag-and-drop.

A fairly comprehensive list of available gadgets is maintained here.

Happy Waving!

Dive into the Wave

We decided to dive into the Wave. It took me approx. 2.5 hours to get myself an invite by spamming the world.

Hope to have an invite for you soon