DISQUS

Tom · 2 months ago

lol you simple minded fail of a person. Try imagining waves for help desks and such. Now review your review.

Louis Gray · 2 months ago

Thank you for your insight.

Ari Herzog · 2 months ago

I agree with Tom. Wasn't that the point of Wave? You and Scoble compare it to instant messaging, as if you expected it to be analogous to Twitter or such. I never got that impression from the initial video announcement and subsequent look up-close last month at Google's DC office. (Where, I might add, I was told my name would be shot to the top of a preferred list; uhh... no.)

abrudtkuhl · 2 months ago

It is an overload... Much like the initial feeling of FriendFeed. I suppose once people calm down and more people get in the system - things will stablize. One thing I love about the service - it could really be anything - social network, collaboration, forum, chat, etc, etc. It's 100% scalable and will constantly evolve.

KT · 2 months ago

I watched the google demo months ago. If you compare wave to a social networking tool, then you are doing it grave injustice, because it simply does not work, for the exact reasons you listed. Google says that it's an improvement over email. What they should have said is it's an improvement over BUSINESS email. (ahem, MS outlook/sharepoint, and whatever Lotus Notes offers.) My take is what Wave does is basically combine GMail and Google Docs into one tool.

The fact that you have a limited amount of time for juggling multiple projects/tasks will be the thing that blocks out the noise from your inbox, and the fact that you keep your to do list prioritized will be the key to filtering out additional noise.

Dieter Schwarz · 2 months ago

Well... The problem here is, that you are trying to use Wave as a Chat or IM, which it is not!
You would have the same problem with good old email, if you are using it as a chat!
I´m still waiting for my invite, which is a tragedy, because I am the target group for this service! *gg*
I want to use it with my team (4 people in Europe, 3 in the US, and 4 in Dubai) for our Magazine - writing together on articles and doing PR stuff.
No more internal emails, sending documents to everyone and so on...
I also see it as a replacement for Google Docs...
People who think Wave is a Twitter/Facebook/IM Killer are simply wrong!
This is not another Social Network!
Wave is the next gen email, and you are not using email with your 500.000+ Twitter Followers!
Just my 5 cent...

Scobleizer · 2 months ago

Louis: I came to the same realization very quickly that you did: http://scobleizer.com/2009/10/01/google-wave-cr...

This is a productivity sink and a bad one at that.

Louis Gray · 2 months ago

It can be a productivity sink. If you thought Twitter or FriendFeed could chew up cycles, Wave takes it to another level. I had a wonderful chat or three last night, and it was a great tool for that. But there is no way I can possibly see every update on every wave, just like I can't see every comment on every FriendFeed thread. It can't replace e-mail for me in this case because with e-mail, it is assumed I read the messages.

Brendan · 2 months ago

Thanks for the good review. I agree I don't see this replacing email or Twitter. It seems best for real-time conversations and seems like a beefed up IM tool to me. The results look overwhelming and a huge time sink. The API could actually create the most value and it will come from someone else, not Google.

jrep · 2 months ago

But Wave-like blog comment sections, now that sounds interesting....

Chris Charabaruk · 2 months ago

Perhaps if that's what Google had built instead, Wave wouldn't be so bad. Or perhaps Wave is the tech demo for a future comments platform from Google, giving us an idea of what it'll be able to do.

Zak · 1 month ago

Wave DOES do that. The developer video shows it being used exactly that way.

Daniel J. Pritchett · 2 months ago

Wave is simultaneously less and more than I'd hoped. Right now the only waves I've seen are plodding meta topics about Wave itself. The service itself has been rather slow - not sure if that's my aging laptop or the full load of 100,000 new users signing on at once.

All that said, I'd be overjoyed if Wave replaced email and IM. Being able to use this type of tool at work would be *killer*.

Louis Gray · 2 months ago

Using Wave at work would take incredible discipline. I swore off IM and chat long ago because the assumption is if you are using the tools, you can be unfocused. Wave can be an incredible distraction.

Jason · 2 months ago

I agree about IM. while I would like to have IM, if people see me online they will IM be just to chat. I don't want to "just chat." I'm working. I want to use IM for work. so now I just don't use IM. Instead, I've gone back to IRC if I want to get assistance with work topics.

iMJR · 2 months ago

Any chance of getting an Invitation?

Lorenzo Strambi · 2 months ago

Nice review! I'm alone ATM in Google Wave so I can't try it at it's best... hope to see some coworkers or friends ASAP

Louis Gray · 2 months ago

Alone in Wave? A travesty! :) As you can see, if you do get connections quick, it can be an overload of information - one I like in most places. I am not sure this is the place I want to get constantly hit with data.

Stalyn8 · 2 months ago

This is one free hosted ugly blog you have here sir.

Louis Gray · 2 months ago

That is true! The good news is that the blog content is optimized for RSS, where all things are equal.

holdenpage · 2 months ago

Lmao, perfect.

Love the response Louis

haakondahl · 2 months ago

Pardon me, do you have any Grey Poupon^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H Wave invites?
Thank you much!

Dez Fragge · 2 months ago

Thx for that post. Your feedback has already helped me to re-think how I can use G-Wave effectively... and what not to do with it. I am still waiting for an invite. :)

Mike Taylor · 2 months ago

So, how do I get an invitation? I signed up the day the Launch video came out, and haven't heard a word...

dml138 · 2 months ago

Word. I signed up the same day, no invite yet. Guess it isn't gonna happen.

Dr.Mani · 2 months ago

As a child, I went to the beach every day during summer holidays (we have the world's second longest beach, btw!). As an adult, it happens less often... but is still fun. And the best part of it is standing in the WAVES!

There are many waves. They never cease. Only a few will touch my feet.

And yes, I'd love to stand there for hours and hours - but usually don't.

Still, while standing on the warm sand, feeling the swish of water swirl around my feet, I feel happy!

Maybe that's how we should use Google Wave?!

;-)

All success
Dr.Mani

disieh · 2 months ago

So basically it's like IRC wrapped in a much more usable package in terms of collaboration capabilities?

Nishadha Silva · 2 months ago

Thanks for this very nice introduction to Google Wave , As you have mentioned this has the potential to be big time waster if not used properly.

Etnafire11 · 2 months ago

good and informative article. the personal excitement i have for wave definitely stems from the 'rule changing' the system requires in terms of how we interact over the web with each other. with everyone feeling 'overloaded' during this release, i wonder how we must have felt back in the day when email and internet really took off. still waiting for my invite, but going to keep this in a circle of close friends, family, and classmates.

Tomek · 2 months ago

I like this post very much. Would be so kind as to extend invitation to Google Wave to me? I am from Poland and apparently Google chose to neglect all users from the Central Europe? I am not gonna send any spam. Anyway, thanks for interesting thoughts.

Dominic Zanardi · 2 months ago

just wait until spam-bots get hold of this...

Fogus Slowcomb · 2 months ago

I am seeing a great deal of flabber as those gasted struggle to say something cogent about the kings new clothes.

Steve Fair · 2 months ago

I'm disappointed but relieved. I've been excited about wave (lower case) for ages and didn't get a beta account. Perhaps the idea fixes problems that don't exist, or maybe they don't exist YET - I dunno. Anyway, I wanted it to be brilliant - maybe it still can be. Thanks for writing this excellent review.

Mapper99 · 2 months ago

Great article! I can't believe people are willing to pay $57 for a Google Invite:

http://freegooglewaveinvites.com/google-wave-in...

natsuooki · 2 months ago

Nice!

www.wavecomunicacao.com.br

www.wavecomunicacao.com

Chieze Okoye · 2 months ago

So, the problem with Wave is that it's so open-ended that anyone can see it literally as anything they want to see it as, hence some people seeing it as a Friendfeed/IM/Twitter client that supercharges the process past human comprehensibility and so it's bad. I on the other hand have a ton of event and project planning email threads that I get on both personally and professionally where the core idea gets lost 10 emails back (buried in the previous messages area of the Gmail conversation) or we send different doc revisions back and forth or whatever and to me, Wave is a godsend. I think that Wave makes this process ridiculously simple now, well past email's (or even Gmail+GDoc's) capabilities -- even with its current numerous shortcomings and rough edges.

So I don't know, I just think of it like this: Do you (general purpose 'you' not necessarily you, Louis) participate in every conversation around you? No? Exercise the same behavior with waves and you'll be fine.

That said, Google needs to really get the focus on the things that Wave does really well (which they've been trying to since inception). Otherwise, (in the case of Scoble's overview, for instance) it will get hijacked by reviewers shoehorning it into a usage where it's not as strong and declaring it a failure or some such.

disqusbeta · 2 months ago

let's be fair to it and give it some time, i think wave developers hastened the things, i see it as a great collaboration tool however, the companies like wordpress with it's workforce spread across globe can really use it instead of IRC, chat clients

Wayne · 2 months ago

Consensus on twitter is that googlewave is a failure.

Daniel J. Pritchett · 2 months ago

That's a shame given that it's not finished and not launched. Oh well, it took people a while to get Twitter - hopefully folks will come around to Wave too.

partywedo · 2 months ago

What makes me nervous is that everyone will see what a lousy speller that I am in real time.
It will be embarrassing to have others watching as I type and then go back to fix my errors displayed by the many red underlined words!

semaho · 2 months ago

hi all, any chance of getting an invitation?

Bary · 2 months ago

To wave or not to wave

I was impressed by the demo, but at the same time I thought, where is this going. We just got used to social media and already it consumes more time and energy than ever before. Info stress is building and building. I don't see why Google Wave may enrich the lives of most people, as it may cost extra time and energy to follow (and playback) the amounts of waves.

So in stead of 'revolutionize' the web, I hope companies will focus more on what really makes our lives more enjoyable, looking at the balance between offline and online time. Technology and social networking should not be a goal itself.

justingoldberg · 2 months ago

When I first heard about it, I thought Wave's robots would replace the need to check myspace, twitter, facebook, gmail, and the forums I frequent every day (eg it would pull all those messages into one interface and timeline). Perhaps that functionality will be added by some enterprising developer?

I haven't used Wave yet, but does anyone else think this looks a lot like the OSAF Chandler app?

Alex Hager · 2 months ago

I have already read scobleizers post and so i´m not that sad to have no invitation

Afonso Ferreira · 2 months ago

For the little I saw, Wave is absolutely GREAT! Could you possibly get me an invite, or could someone do that? My e-mail is at http://scr.im/fonzo - thanks! :D

Margie Mintz · 2 months ago

Hi, I'm reading your blog for the first time, and as much as I enjoyed this post, the repartee below is wonderful. Like with my teenage son on facebook, people start writing, forgetting there's a person (or many) on the other side.
With a lot of the new applications, it's a big experiment, cast out to see what takes, adjusting along the way. I can't wait to try the wave. I'm sure it's interesting at the least. The challenge is - more and more - controlling our time, because it's all so seductive.
thanks,
Margie Mintz

Sherman Dorn · 2 months ago

I would also think of Wave as hype except for a conversation with my daughter, who described an ideal online class environment as "a sort of chat/IM where you could see people as they're typing, and change your response based on it." If Google releases Wave where universities where students have Gmail, and allows some closure by contact sublist/group, I could imagine some highly effective environments for tutoring (definitely) and teaching (possibly).

Mark Essel · 2 months ago

Great first hand review, incorporating some of your key insights into a post now with my own super charged communication addins :)

Adelina Moura · 2 months ago

Great tool.
I'm a teacher and I would like have the possibility to use Google Wave with my students and collegues at school. It's possible to have an invitation?

Paul · 1 month ago

Been using Wave for a couple days now. Two words: re-tarded.

People are already so thoughtless about e-writing; if this catches on (which I doubt) it'll make things worse.

Ray Waldo · 1 month ago

I did not think that Twitter would catch on either. Now, I have (& use) a Twitter account. However, I still believe that Twitter is ego-centric.

I just do not (yet) have enough info about Wave to know whether it can be useful or not. I am very happy with G-Voice and the other Google products so I am hopeful that G-Wave will also serve us well.

Ray Waldo · 1 month ago

Very helpful information about Wave. I still do not have an invite but your post has given me some guidelines that should help me not get frustrated as some others have.