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Google wave observations.

Nov 11, 2009
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I’ve not seen google wave yet, but here are my impressions based upon reactions from those who have.

Phase 1: HEY WHO HAS A GOOGLE WAVE INVITE THEY CAN GIVE ME?
This begging phase increases in popularity as more people actually get on the site.

Phase 2: THIS IS COOL, BUT WHAT THE HELL DO I DO WITH THIS ?
Turns out that the “I have something you don’t” novelty wears off quickly when people realise they didn’t actually need it.

Phase 3: HEY WHO ELSE IS ON GOOGLE WAVE ?
Belief that others may be able to enlighten them, and get them out of phase 2.

Phase 4: HEY THIS IS PRETTY USELESS.
Followed by neglect and forgetting they even have an account.

I’ve yet to see anyone praising google wave, but I’ve seen a lot of people go quickly through the above phases. I’m sure there are some people reading this through planet.*.com using it. Is it really “all that” ? Or is this google app going to be the next orkut ? (Remember when everyone thought that was the future? Ah, 2003 I miss you).

(This post isn’t actually me in phase 1. I couldn’t care less, and will probably skip straight to phase 4 when it goes public).

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6 Comments

  1. macemoneta  •  Nov 11, 2009 @14:37

    The problem is with the roll out. Google Wave is a collaborative communications tool. Using invites means that there is never a critical mass of people you know. Trying to convince people to use it so you can figure out if it’s useful is a wasted effort. Waiting for people you know to join on their own is a waste of time. This isn’t GMail; it can’t interact with people on another platform.

    They should have simply opened up to everyone at once. As it is, people are branding it a failure without really giving it a try.

  2. jcollie  •  Nov 11, 2009 @21:43

    The usefulness of Google Wave remains to be seen. The situation reminds me a bit of the well-worn quip “what use is a newborn baby?” In it’s current incarnation, Google Wave is little more than a toy, so unless you feel like playing around with it there’s not much sense in trying to track down an invitation.

    Google seems to be doing some of the right things though. The protocol is based on XMPP and they have published the protocol specs. The protocol allows for federation so once the code is written anyone should be able to run their own Wave server. Google is providing some open source reference code to kickstart alternate implementations although from what I understand it’s not a complete solution.

    If Google Wave remains Google-only I think you may be right in that Google Wave will be a historical curiosity. But if truly independent implementations emerge that can interoperate with each other I think Google Wave will have a significant influence on how we communicate on the Internet.

  3. nikanth  •  Nov 11, 2009 @22:58

    Wave = Bugzilla – (mid-air collision) + Fancy UI + Rich text support

    I would like to see Bugzilla get these features or Wave should be used as Bugzilla. :)

  4. pjd  •  Nov 12, 2009 @14:56

    I went straight to stage 4 with Twitter

  5. maxolasersquad  •  Nov 13, 2009 @00:18

    I’ve been using it a little. A lot of us in the Florida Ubuntu Loco have been using it in conjunction with IRC.
    My biggest grip is that it is not easy to tell which part of the conversation has been updated. The website will indicate three unread posts, but I don’t know where in the conversation those unread posts are.
    I am mostly looking forward to it being in other multi-IM applications like Pidgin and Empathy, as I like having my desktop notify me when something new comes in versus me checking a website.
    It is important to remember it is in beta and has absolutely no third party support for it yet, so it is not really possible to make any real judgments about how good the final product will be yet.

  6. calyps  •  Nov 15, 2009 @18:10

    A huge collection of Google wave extensions are also available at http://www.wextensions.com

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