If you missed the Google I/O conference last week, here is the video of Google’s largest announcement, Google Wave, which in short aims to replace the 40 year old email standard and become a new open standard for electronic communication and real-time collaboration. It’s a whole new way of thinking about online communication and there are a number of components to the system so if you work in tech it’s worth watching the video from beginning to end. Google Wave is a major power play by Google, and the biggest question is how Microsoft will embrace or deflect HTML5 in it’s browsers, a requirement for Wave, and the new Wave protocol itself.

As a side note, I was hoping Google would talk about how the new Wave system potentially ends the largest current issue with email — SPAM. It’s implied by the architecture of the system but I’m not sure everyone will grasp this and in my mind is a huge selling point for any protocol, as least in-part, aiming to replace email.

Above is a video from Google demonstrating how to setup IMAP email on the iPhone. The primary advantage of IMAP (Internet Message Access Protocol) over POP (Post Office Protocol) is that IMAP maintains the state of messages across email clients. For example, if you delete an email at Gmail.com, then that email is automatically deleted from your iPhone and vice versa. This means that you never have to deal with the same message twice and can save a lot of time when it comes to filing and deleting messages.

With IMAP, folders are also synced across email clients. When you switch to Gmail IMAP, the Gmail spam folder will appear on your iPhone. This allows you to flag messages as spam directly from your iPhone, something you couldn’t do previously with POP.

Follow the video above or these simple instructions to make the switch.

What should you be doing now? Twittering. I won’t waste any more of your time so you can get started. Oh yeah, and if you’re on a Mac install Twitterrific.

Need someone to follow? Start with me. http://twitter.com/mcnitt

At what point did Apple Computer, Inc.’s corporate website become Steve Job’s personal home page? Where exactly is Apple going with this? I can already picture the next ad. Swirly, dreamy transition to white…

“Hi. I’m a Democrat.”

“And I’m a Republican.”

Hey, Republican. Do you want to see the Nobel Peace Prize I won for my work on global warming and the important environmental issues I continue to champion?

I have a better idea, Democrat. Why don’t you tell us again how you invented the Internet? Hehe.

That’s not nice, Republican. You know that comment was taken out of context. So you don’t want to hear how I’m saving the planet?

Another time, Democrat. Another time…

Hey, if Apple comes out with a low voltage, 80% recycled and recyclable GoreBook Pro, I’ll be the first in line to buy one.

Not for lack of will, I tried a number of things to improve the email experience. I set my mail application to only check email every 15 minutes. I turned off the email alert sound so arriving email would not distract me from the current task at hand. I would make heroic efforts to clear my inbox each day before shutting down the computer but the more difficult emails would survive and sit in my inbox along with half-written email drafts in the drafts folder until the next cleaning battle which was essentially a never ending saga. On the eve of every third new moon, I would sheepishly and with great guilt, looking over my shoulder to ensure that not even the office janitor was around, file the oldest unanswered emails away as if they had been taken care of properly. My email experience was clearly broken; my inbox weighed me down every time I looked at it and there seemed to be no way out.

That all changed two weeks ago when an innocent Twitter message from Scott Beale of Laughing Squid appeared on my screen. “SpamSieve, Kills Spam Dead on Mac OS X.” Boy, I needed less spam. I started reading the short post and had SpamSieve installed before I was finished. I then read the related post on Merlin Mann’s “Inbox Zero”, a system for keeping your inbox clear. I had heard of the system before but never really got into it. Now that there was a video about it, I figured it would be easy enough to watch (video). From that hour on until now, this is the view of my inbox…

That’s correct, it’s empty. My email inbox is completely empty. Zero inbox, zero spam.

Now, you maybe thinking, “Yeah sure, it looks like that for the screenshot. For a few hours maybe, but tomorrow there’ll be a growing list of emails again.” I assure you that my inbox has been completely empty for two weeks solid.

You too can experience email Nirvana. (And you don’t need to be on a Mac and use SpamSieve. If you have corporate email with spam filtering, Gmail, Yahoo, Hotmail, etc. you probably have spam filtering that is good enough. If you host your own domains and use POP or IMAP mail, find a good third-party spam filter for your mail application.) Apply Merlin’s sustainable “Inbox Zero” approach and henceforth live in email bliss. It really does work.