Google has a way of hyping up their new products by limiting
who can access them. When Gmail launched, you had to be invited by someone who
already had a Gmail account. Google has been continuing this practice with their
newest software, Google Wave. The service first launched on September 30th,
2009 with Google sending out 100,000 invites to people who had registered for
the service many months in advance.
Google is hyping Wave as the next generation of
communicating on the web, intermingling email, instant messaging, forums, and tweeting
into one easy-to-use interface.
When logging into Google Wave for the first time, most
people's first impressions are a bit underwhelming. The initial display shows a
few empty boxes in a layout reminiscent of Gmail. Any Gmail contacts that also have
Wave will automatically show up in your Wave contacts.
Other than sending
private messages to friends on your contact list, or having a conversation with
yourself, there doesn't seem too much to do at first. I did start a private
wave to use as a "to do" list, which although there are probably better
applications for that, has served my purposes pretty well.
Adding a few personal friends to Wave almost seems reminiscent
of old AOL chat rooms with more versatility. If another user is looking at a
Wave while you are replying, they will see each letter pop up in the Wave in
real-time as you type it. Any messages in the wave are also stored in a similar
fashion to email, so someone not online has the ability to come in and reply at
a later date. This can be good for group discussions, sharing links, or posting
photos between friends.
with:public
Once you're ready to start diving deeper into the water, you'll need to remember
the most important search in Google wave. By replacing the in:inbox text in the
main search window with with:public
you will be able to see all the public waves in real-time. You can add a term
after the with:public text to search public waves for your entered text. It seems kind of odd that Google doesn't make gazing out
into the sea of public waves a little more intuitive.
Corporate Use
Google is hoping that some companies will make use of Wave's collaborative
functionality by using a Wave for a meeting or project where team members can
contribute their ideas and share notes with each other. For Wave to take off in
this way, obviously Google would need to remove the invitation-only
restrictions currently in place and make a few other improvements that I'm sure
they are working on.
Another possible corporate use for Wave is for companies to
stay connected to their customers, as many are trying to do now with Twitter.
One example use of Wave would be sending out a poll to get user feedback on new
products or marketing campaigns.
Overall Impressions
I'm on the fence about Google Wave. It does a good job of integrating all types
of online communication into one interface, but most people probably don't
check their Wave inbox nearly as much as their email, which means your message
won't reach its recipient as quick. That could change if Wave really takes off
though.
The other noticeable downside to Wave is the slow reaction
times. This can be especially noticed when scrolling through a longer wave that
has pictures or other widgets embedded in it. Hopefully with future server
upgrades Google will speed up their Wave service.
Also, don't forget Wave is still in the preview phase and
more features are coming. Currently, by clicking on the Settings Wave, you get
an under construction page that says, "This wave is where you will be able to
customize your personal options and extensions, but we are still working on
it".
Now that Wave has been out for a few months, most people who
were looking for invitations already have one. If you're interested in checking
it out but haven't had the opportunity, post in the comments and I'll pass an
invite your way.
Anyone have a chance to try Wave out already? What are your
thoughts?
More Info:
About Google Wave
Google Wave: A Complete Guide
Google Wave's Best Use Cases
Google Wave Gets Business-Friendly With New Features
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Re: Surfing the Google Wave: Review
