DISQUS

Eric Logan · 2 months ago

The best write up I have read and I have read a lot of wave related posts. Thanks, for sharing your insights.

Daniel J. Pritchett · 2 months ago

I agree, Eric. The point about how private Waves won't have to be clones but will be fully compatible with the wider Wave ecosystem is a big one that we need to keep in mind.

Cameron Adams · 2 months ago

Thanks Linday, that was a good read. It's probably the best post I've read that takes into consideration the technology, the interface, and the beta nature of our release; then extrapolates that into a future of real-time communication. Exciting times!

Ben Reierson · 2 months ago

Agreed 100%.

Joe Dawson · 2 months ago

Great post and I share your view, it does seem that everyone is jumping on the bandwagon to dismiss Google Wave as not being a game changer. This is only the beginning, the foundations, there was significant hype but with more exposure this has the potential to change everything! I'm looking forward to when the developers fully understand the tools as I'm sure we will see incredible services and products materialise!!

Karen Masullo (OPCGal) · 2 months ago

Great conversation.

For me, the view of Google Wave is not what it should be, but what it could be. It may not solve a specific problem right now for a specific user or users, but it may well be the solution for another when an open, diverse group has time and exposure to it.

Turn it upside down, look at it from all angles; don't be confined by preconceived ideas about what it should be. I have no doubt that someone will adapt it for a use no one foresees. That's where the excitement is, for me.

It has already been beneficial to me from a collaborative POV. I'm a fan.

Otto · 2 months ago

I don't think so. Don't get me wrong, I understand Google Wave just fine, and get that it's a new platform on XMPP. I just don't think it'll take off for many, many years. If ever.

My general opinion of it is simple: too soon. It doesn't solve any problems that people have right now. Sure, in the future, it might get used. But the way to do that is to define the protocol, not the code, and certainly not the interface.

They're pushing too hard and trying too much and I just think that it'll end in miserable failure.

BlueCockatoo · 2 months ago

Thanks for your thoughts, Otto. I agree that it is very soon, possibly too soon for the expectations that have been placed on it it, but I also think that those expectations are misguided.

If the platform is never exposed then (as you indicated) it never will take off. But by giving people the chance to see what it's capable of and what possibilities are there to build on top of it, there are plenty of them who will take off and run with it.

Platforms are not sexy (except to hardcore geeks). No one got excited by TCP/IP until someone figured out how to create the WWW, which solved a lot of problems that many people didn't even know they had at the time. Just because you can't currently think of any problems that Wave solves for people now doesn't mean that there aren't problems out there for it to solve, or be part of the solution for.

Most of the people who are being let in the beta now are not developers, but they're there to give the developers who were already testing an example of what kind of load the platform can bear and how it deals with things for a larger group of people. It will eventually bear fruit.

I don't think that Google is pushing too hard... I think that people outside are expecting too much, especially at this stage. I can't imagine Wave being a failure. But I can imagine it becoming so much of a background technology that it seems to have faded away (because it's no longer a novelty, it just does what it's supposed to do).

Otto · 2 months ago

I am a developer, and I've been playing with the Wave sandbox for quite a while. I still can't think of a problem that I'd solve using Wave the protocol.

Because let's face it: Wave the interface is crap. It works, and it implements most of the functionality, but it's slow, bloated, clunky, and ugly. Fine for devs (since we don't much care about that when testing things), but terrible for a demonstration.

IMO, they are pushing too hard because they released these invites at all. It's not ready for that. There's no functionality to demo. There's no interface to see. There is *still* no problems that it really solves.

Don't get me wrong, it's a neat idea, and there probably are problems that Wave is good for. Just because I can't think of them doesn't mean that they don't exist. But it's still *way* too soon. They should have invited more developers to come up with ideas for what to use it for, not this crowd of non-developers. That's what I meant. It's not ready for public consumption, this invite round is *way* premature.

And in that sense, yes, it can be a failure. Wave will be relegated to the dustbin if they keep trying to push it this much. Look at Google Base: It's still there, and useful, but almost nobody uses it because nobody can figure out WTF it's for. Premature release caused that.

BlueCockatoo · 2 months ago

I agree that the interface needs a LOT of work. I still think the reason they let non-devs in at this point is to figure out what the interface SHOULD be. What do people want from it? What is too much information and what is the best way to give people information without overloading them? How should it be organized and what UI elements/standards need to be created to make it all efficient? Honestly, this is such an general framework that there are so many possibilities it's overwhelming. I don't think any set of UX people could just sit and brainstorm it without actually watching people to see what they do. Again, they're not trying to polish the UI at this stage, they are designing it.

It's not like this is public either. They sent out 100K invites on Wednesday and I'll bet even with the "nominations" they've approved that number probably hasn't hit 500K yet. That's a lot of people but it's not THAT many considering how many use the internet. If they were going to make it beta like Gmail was "beta" then I would be more critical. They're trying to work out the kinks and develop a useful client for it so that it actually will be something that solves problems for us when it's ready to come out of beta. That's a good strategy in my opinion.

.LAG · 2 months ago

Nice write-up. I like you're way of thinking about it. I want to get a chance to get it a whirl though.

tad · 2 months ago

Thanks for writing pretty much exactly what I was thinking. :)

kevinarth · 2 months ago

The only complaint I have so far is the difficulty i find in actually providing feedback to Google. I'm sure they have tons of debug code throwing data their way, but if I stumble on something and want to share the details, I'm not sure where to go. I know about the forums, but I've tried searching for existing issues so as not to duplicate and can't find an easy way to do that.

Jeff Miller · 2 months ago

You could try the Ideas link (under Help); there's a Google Moderator page with ideas. The page has a text search box, so you could compare keywords for your issues or ideas.

http://productideas.appspot.com/#16/e=224f1

jansegers · 2 months ago

Interesting article. I would like invite so I can judge for myself...

please gmail jansegers

http://twitter.com/jansegers

I can't wait to use Twave... Twitter being almost the only application the Google guys have built in themselves - ignoring the existence of Jaiku ...

Walter Adamson · 2 months ago

Thanks for the insights about the platform as opposed to the UI. As an "outside" I had not picked that up before.
Walter, @g2m

socialnerdia · 2 months ago

Fantastic point about Google Wave. I've heard this before but I liked the way you wrote it. Again, fantastic.