Google is cooking up a new web product called “Google Wave”.

It’s difficult to explain, but the gist is that rather than email being a package that gets delivered from point A to point B. Google instead is treating the ‘email’ as a destination. A single package that users can connect to, edit, make additions and then notify others connected to it that it has been changed. The changes that Wave will allow you to perform include basic text editing (like email) but takes it many steps further. Easily add audio, video, polls, translations, images and just about any other media to the Wave.

The glorious thing about this is that it would mark an end to long and confusing “reply to all” email chains helping to keep everyone on the same page and make clear who is contributing what to the conversation.

In certain cases when multiple people are editing a Wave the edits will appear on everyone’s screen in real time! It’s more like having a real conversation and thus can be a huge time saver, protect bunnies and possibly keep the senior citizens in Florida from getting sun burned.

Wave is currently in beta (and probably will be for a very long time) but some invitations have been dispersed. If you’re interested leave a comment (with your email address) and I’ll send you one!

-Paul

From Ahajokes.com, examples of translations in advertising gone awry:

Coors put its slogan, “Turn it loose,” into Spanish, where it was read as “Suffer from diarrhea.”

Clairol introduced the “Mist Stick,” a curling iron, into German only to find out that “mist” is slang for manure. Not too many people had use for the “manure stick”.

When Gerber started selling baby food in Africa, they used the same packaging as in the US, with the beautiful baby on the label. Later they learned that in Africa, companies routinely put pictures on the label of what’s inside, since most people can’t read English.

Pepsi’s “Come alive with the Pepsi Generation” translated into “Pepsi brings your ancestors back from the grave,” in Chinese.

When Parker Pen marketed a ballpoint pen in Mexico, its ads were supposed to say “It won’t leak in your pocket and embarrass you.” However, the company mistakenly thought the spanish word “embarazar” meant embarrass. Instead the ads said that “It wont leak in your pocket and make you pregnant.”

Also in Chinese, the Kentucky Fried Chicken slogan “finger-lickin’ good” came out as “eat your fingers off.”

When General Motors introduced the Chevy Nova in South America, it was apparently unaware that “no va” means “it won’t go.” After the company figured out why it wasn’t selling any cars, it renamed the car in its Spanish markets to the Caribe.

Colgate introduced a toothpaste in France called Cue, the name of a notorious porno magazine.

For full info on the Mercedes-Benz case study go here: http://www.brandingasia.com/cases/mercedes-case.htm

-Jenny