startupmania

If one were to believe the hype, the future is about to wash over us like a wave. A Google Wave.

The service, as Google claims, will change the way we communicate on the web, providing a single, cohesive, integrated platform for e-mail, instant messaging, collaborative document editing and much more. Google has only began revealing Wave to the world, as the service is currently (much like the preliminary stages of Gmail) available through invitation only – and they are rare. What makes Google Wave different than Gmail or Google Docs is that Google are setting out to create a platform rather than a service, Wave is open source and developers are encouraged to come and fiddle and expand the service as they see fit.

These expansions come in two forms – robots and extensions. Robots are automatic processes that comb through a wave (a threaded conversation and the base for the entire service) and alter it in many diverse ways: correcting spelling, replacing certain words with appropriate links (such as twitter #hashtags) or translating the message. Extensions, on the other hand, are gadgets and plugins that can be inserted into a wave that allow the users to do a great many things and thus expand the wave’s usability and functionality.

One company that develops such an extension is LabPixies, an Israeli company operating out of Tel Aviv. If the name sounds familiar, it’s because LabPixies has been around for quite some time. Founded in 2006 by Ran Ben-Yair, Oded Poncz, Udi Graff and Nir Tzemah, they have been making applications for the web and mobile since. Hard-core Google users, who make use of the iGoogle homepage, may have seen many of LabPixies gadgets – which range from the useful to the entertaining.

In 2009, however, LabPixies expanded their services and broke out of the web world, providing content for mobile platforms as well. In fact, their applications have reached a top 10 position in the iTunes app store, quite an impressive feat considering the store has thousands of applications to offer. Of course, Google devotees aren’t left out as LabPixies provide content for Android systems as well.

Due to their close connection with Google, LabPixies were approached to provide content for Google Wave and stand at the forefront of this innovation. Ran Ben-Yair, CEO of LabPixies, describes the Wave platform as “a collaborative tool several levels above those currently on the market.” He says that LabPixies will continue to stand at the front lines and provide the best gadgets and applications available for the Web, the mobile world and Wave.