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According to the Official Google Blog, over 100,000 people will today receive their invitations to preview Google Wave.
If you haven’t yet heard of Google Wave, it’s a mix of email, instant messaging, twitter and more. You can see it in action in Google Wave Developer Preview at Google I/O 2009.
So what is it? To be honest I don’t really know. I can see what it is and does, but I don’t understand how I can use it.
It looks as though the product will be ‘released’ in the same way that Gmail was launched. 100,000 people will receive invitations, and with time, they will be able to invite more people from within their accounts, who in turn will be able to do the same thing. And so the wave will spread.
The point of Google Wave seems to be that email hasn’t really evolved significantly in the past 40 years or so. Google believe that this many be the start of the r/evolution.
The question is whether you can and should attempt to force change upon something that is already working well.
Giraffe’s long necks evolved because of their need to eat leaves high up in the trees. Natural selection ensured that those with longer necks survived, bred, and passed on their characteristics.
Email may not have evolved because there’s no need for it to do so. On the other hand, people might have said the same thing when television was first introduced, and said that the radio was doing just fine.
Only time will tell.
The first problem that Google face is how to describe Wave. So far I don’t think they’re doing a good job:
“Google Wave is an online tool for real-time communication and collaboration. A wave can be both a conversation and a document where people can discuss and work together using richly formatted text, photos, videos, maps, and more.”
But in true Google style, they’ll let other people tell you what it is and how it works. Your friends and colleagues will be able to tell you what it is and why you need it when they send you an invitation.
And as and when you receive an invitation, you’ll be able to explain it to me.
See you in the wave.
I think email can be incredibly inefficient, time consuming and difficult to manage (especially when you get over tens of emails/day, with multiple contributors), so I think it is about time for change, and welcome Google’s innovation.
It will be interesting to see how – and if – people adopt their new way of working, but if Gmail is anything to go by, I’m sure the large majority won’t be disappointed.
Have you watched the video? I know it’s long, but there’s a good deal of explanation in there.
“Email may not have evolved because there’s no need for it to do so.” – I couldn’t agree less! Reply/reply to all, emails with recurring quoted information 17 pages long, with some people replying above the citation, others below, missing recipients when replying to older emails and trying to piece together bits of information from 20 different emails “I emailed you that, didn’t you read it?”.
As far as I’m concerned, email is the cancer of modern day communication. We’ll never get rid of it entirely, but Wave might just provide a cure to fit the deadliest of symptoms.
Cheers, EP.
No invitation in site – but I have a heap of things I would like to execute in Wave! To really see if it’s worth the buzz
I think it CAN be a well needed change – at least my e-mail folders are not a pretty site! And collaboration on documents is freakishly disturbing in my office… And ppl use MSN and Skype…alternate between them – bloody irritating if you ask me.
If you get it, can I use it – I promise I’ll explain each step I take and the outcomes
The real change will be as more developers get to grips with the platform and protocol. The user interface you see isn’t that relevant to the long-term success. It’s a bit like Mosaic – a good start, but only a hint of the full potential.