Google Wave is the next big advancement in communication presented by the folks at Google. It has been creating quite a buzz around the Internet. I was lucky enough to get a developer account as I am still working on integration with WordPress. Due to the fact I got an early account I can share my thoughts about the product and where I see it going in a day to day situation.
First off Google Wave is extremely innovative. It is more or less a live chat. You see what the person is typing while they type and can interact as they are interacting. There is no waiting for a message or blip to come through. You can share images, maps, videos, and gadgets (pictured above) with the person or people you are Waving with. Think of it as an email mixed with a chatroom mixed with an instant message. My hat goes off to the developers as the technology is fantastic. Everything is very fluid and not difficult to learn. You can “playback” the wave if you were added to it at a later point. When you play it back it’s the equivalent of watching a time line of events. People posting and replying until you reach the end. You can change your fonts and colors and there is a nice photo gallery system built in so you can share your pictures from vacation with friends and they can comment. Wave really “opens up” emailing. So how does this apply to the real world? In my opinion Google Wave is going to be a difficult pill to swallow for the email dedicated. While there are no immediate problems with privacy one would venture to guess that if you have a wave going with several people and you think you are talking in “private” to one specific user of the wave, you may accidentally blunder and spill important info to the wrong party. With conventional email, if their name is not cc or bcc then they are locked out of the conversation. Another issue is the fact that people who don’t use Google as a service cannot be “Waved” with. Naturally they would need to sign up. However trying to convince someone to leave their safe, comfy inbox for the Wave is easier said than done. With Email you just send a message to anyone you want with no worry or concern as to what lies beyond the @ symbol of their email address. What about everyday use? Can someone move from a service like Gmail to Wave without feeling like they might be losing features? I say they can’t, atleast not yet. Not to say that wave is an email replacement but as Google said “it is email if email were discovered and built for the first time today”. I like Wave, I really do, I think it offers so much and it’s only the beginning however the chatroom feel really might turn people off. I think I would like to see a lot of these features hit Gmail. Things like the image sharing and gallery along with the ability to comment on posted “waves” would be a smash for emails. Google will be sending out 100,000 invites today (9/30/09) to the early adopters. If you get one, let me know! I am curious to see how everyone feels about it. Is this the next innovation in online communication? Too early to tell. Could it be? Absolutely. The issue lies in making everyday users comfortable in this new setting. Enjoy the picture of my brother and I playing with Wave. Guest appearance by Carlton Banks of course!
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