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One of the more intriguing aspects of Google Wave – the much anticipated communication and collaboration platform that debuts later this month – is the fact that Waves can be embedded anywhere on the Web.

Waves, in case you’re not familiar, are essentially individual threaded conversations that take place within Google Wave. So, when we’re talking about an embeddable Wave, it means a conversation that can be placed on other websites, with the same functionality as it would have within Wave itself.

Since some developers already have access to Google Wave, we’re now able to show you what this functionality looks like – and how you may be seeing it in the future – via a WordPress plugin that has already been built for easily embedding Waves in blog posts.

Embeddable Waves

You’ll only be able to see the embed in action if you have a dev account for Wave, so here’s a screenshot of what the end result looks like, via a post on Mastering Wave:

It might not be much to see yet, but here are a few key things not readily apparent: (1) it’s editable, meaning the audience you’re sharing the embed with can make changes (2) it’s drag and drop, so that same audience can also easily add content (3) it can be played back, so you can see how the Wave has evolved over time. Taking all of these features into consideration, you can see why we think it’s possible Wave could become a new type of commenting system for the Web.

Google Wave WordPress Plugin

And that brings us back to the WordPress plugin, dubbed Wavr. Once installed, the plugin lets you easily add Waves to any WordPress blog post with the simple syntax – [wave id="wave-id"] – where “wave-id” is simply the unique ID number given to each Wave. There are also some simple options for editing the Wave’s appearance, like background and text colors. The plugin was built using the Google Wave Embed API.

The simplicity of the plugin and the way it extends the functionality of Wave to third-party websites is a great example of what might be to come with Google Wave. It’s not just a shiny new interface for Gmail, but a whole new way of envisioning communication on the Web. Is the world ready for it? That’s a question we’ve been asking, and probably the main reason Google is being so deliberate with the rollout.

Starting on September 30th, 100,000 users will get access, and how they use it will dictate a lot about the product’s future and how we might see it evolve. Developers are clearly pretty stoked about it though – Wavr joins a growing number of extensions and apps that have already been built for the platform pre-launch, which you can check out in the Wave Samples Gallery.

Google Wave Resources

Tags: Google, Google Wave, Wordpress, wordpress plugins

Colabolo is an Adobe Air app that soft-launched a few days ago and wants to simplify the way tasks in a team are assigned, managed and resolved. Available in English and Japanese, the app (currently in beta) is offered by Tokyo-based ImaHima. By combining the ease of use of email with the structure of project management solutions, Colabolo intends to help handling tasks that require team work such as sales leads, approval requests, document reviews, support requests, etc.

After installing the client (system requirements), Colabolo starts with an almost spartan interface that indeed looks like that of an email client. User can create a new task (called “issue”) in just a few seconds: Click on the “New Issue” button, name and describe the task, classify it by type, assign who is responsible and you’re done. All tasks can then be tracked (and filtered) at a glance in an inbox-like grid at the top of the screen. This is also where all updates made by team members are automatically sent to.

But Colabolo isn’t only for the project leader. All issues can be scheduled, commented on and discussed in real-time by added team members. Files can be shared with drag-and drop. And Colabolo can also be integrated into existing email accounts, essentially turning it into a help desk system when dealing with external customers.

An example: If an email from a customer arrives to your company’s support email address, it will not only be automatically converted into a new Colabolo-compatible support issue but also forwarded to the support team leader. The issue can then be assigned to another colleague whose comment on the issue can be used as an email reply back to the customer from within Colabolo. If the person in charge regards the task to be resolved, all team members involved get a notification in their Colabolo in-box and can move on to the next task.

ImaHima CEO Neeraj Jhanji says this built-in inbox (with push notifications) helps reducing the number of conventional emails significantly. Asked what other factors are distinguishing Colabolo from similar solutions already existing on the market Jhanji says Colabolo is easy to use even for non-technical staff (which is true), efficient (because users don’t have to wait to be online) and fast (because Colabolo behaves like a desktop application while syncing changes with all team members in the background).

Colabolo is free at the moment, with future pricing likely to stand at around $9.99 per month and user (in contrast to many competing products, there is no limit on projects, tasks or attached files). An iPhone app is also in development.

I liked Colabolo enough to at the very least recommend downloading and trying the app out, which is true especially for start-ups looking for a simple task management tool for their team. Colabolo faces a lot of competition in the online project management field (37Signals’ Basecamp, Action Method, Daptiv, LiquidPlanner, Huddle, Producteev, Clarizen, just to name a few).

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