Comments on: Debating the power of Google's Wave

CNET's Rafe Needleman and Stephen Shankland dissect and discuss the search giant's new experimental communication platform.

[JohnFMoore]

This is a great overview of Google Wave. We are having an indepth discussion on Twitter regarding my post regarding Google Wave's potential as a CRM solution for SMB customers.

John

[atish505]

We are working with Google to develop a Sales Force like hosted application (SAAS model) but for non sales and sales folks alike. Apart form elements of Wave it also has Project and task management with team collboration and closed circuit (within the team threads) communication threads.

[IgnatiusTheKing]

Your avatar looks like Geraldo.

[haikaladli]

Google is always making innovations. Moreover ChromeOS will be present at the end of the year ...

Do not forget to read related articles about Google Wave at the address

http://www.haikaladli.co.cc/2009/10/google-wave.html

[galadan111]

"Gmail users accustomed to conversation view ... will have an easier time adjusting to Wave's ways."

and what about people who absolutely HATE Google's conversation views?

this is a great article, going over the pros and cons. one thing that disturbs me about wave is the ability to create branches ANYWHERE in the wave, causing possible confusion and big possibilities to miss new branches or comments.

my mom always taught me that something WELL THOUGHT OUT was better to read, so the IM / realtime capability doesn't hold too much weight with me. my luddite side showing again :)

[Shankland]

Yup, the branches-everywhere option can be a problem. I suspect that people who like Wave will arrive at various informal protocols for using it, just as happened with IM, e-mail, and Twitter. It's a pretty open-ended foundation.

Though I find Wave conceptually similar to conversation view in Gmail, it is different, with nested responses, for example. Mostly the similarity is around the idea of organizing a conversation by subject rather than by timestamp. So you may or may not like Wave, but don't write it off because of its Gmail commonalities until you've tried it.

Your mom was right. I've regretted hasty IMs, e-mails, blog comments, and phone calls. Wave is just the next thing you'll have to be careful about.

[cosuna]

Your mother told you how to work on the 18th century linear paradigm.

I recommend you read "Gutemberg's Galaxy" by Marshal McLuhan.
"McLuhan divides history in four epochs: the oral tribe culture, the manuscript culture, the Gutenberg galaxy and the electronic age. For the break between the time periods in each case the occurrence of a new medium is responsible, the hand-writing terminates the oral phase, the printing and the electricity revolutionizes afterwards culture and society."

(I'm quoting wikipedia, since my copy has long been lost and have found no way of finding a replacement)

I'm so excited about Wave that I can't stand not already having it. Confounded email. Wave has already spoiled me from "traditional" communication platforms. I want it now!

I'm so excited about Wave that I can't stand not already having it. Confounded email. Wave has already spoiled me from "traditional" communication platforms. I want it now!

[jurijmlotman]

will there be lots of specialized 3rd-party clients, like Twitter, with special UX-design and more emphasizing certain wave-characteristics?

[Shankland]

Google envisions that and I'm sure somebody is at work right now whipping up some AIR app. Google last week demonstrated a console version for green-screen command-line fans. Because it's an open protocol, others can build Wave apps and services. See this for more information:

http://news.cnet.com/8301-17939_109-10252579-2.html

http://www.waveprotocol.org/

[Voice_Of_Logic]

Do we have to look at these stupid avatars anymore?

[tomws]

I appreciate the pro/con review. I'd bet, though, that when you re-read this after Wave hits (assuming it does), you'll consider many of your own arguments embarrassingly quaint. If not, then twenty years later you'll be sitting around telling "kids" that you know your stuff because years ago you did COBOL... er, I mean... email and IM.

[Kimsh]

Of course, it come from Google so it will change the world. Like Gmail did right? No one had done email before Google... Twitter is currently at about 20% use by the 15 to 20 year old group yet people talk as though it has changed the world. Sorry, it is less important than SMS, and Wave may be as well.

[Super2online]

My take on your evaluation and after reading some of the early comments is that younger users will take to this like fish in a pond. They will be jumping for joy, wearing a smile ear to ear, and shouting their adulations to the rafters. Older users who like slow and steady will continue to use more traditional options like email, twitter, and facebook with one dimensional conversations for quite some time.

However, over time this and competitors versions that will certainly appear now that the cat is out of the bag with many of the improvements you mention will eventually succumb to the pressure from peers to beging using them.

[jswright33]

Interesting to think of twitter and facebook as traditional options.

I agree that younger users will embrace it first, but I think the adoption of facebook and twitter by an "older" crowd shows that technology can be used by everyone.

The eventual question is where it make it easier for us to communicate as we continue to spread out from each other. If that is yes (as I think it is with FB and twitter), it will succeed. If it is no, then, it will be used mostly by us in the technology crowd.

[mdeicaza]

The debate around Wave seems to be focused on the UI that was built with the foundation, but little attention has been paid to the actual engine that powers Wave, and that is where I think the real power of Wave is.

With Wave, developers can create collaborative applications *from the start*, not as an add-on, not as an after-thought, and it is what they get by default.

Collaborative applications is what made Google Docs so great. Now every app on the web can leverage a similar technology.

The UI is also not limited to be HTML-based. You can use the Wave infrastructure to to integrate it into your desktop or RIA applications just as well. The protocol would allow OpenOffice for example to become a full client to Wave, or the GIMP (Linux's PhotoShop) or any other proprietary application that wishes to connect to the Wave set of protocols.

[jessiethe3rd]

UI = Outlook.... social capabilities - very excited about the possibilities here. Will it be taken seriously in a corporate environment? Probably not yet. Will SMB's adopt? Quite possibly if it's proven out. Will it replace mediums currently available... specifically OUTLOOK... maybe if they get a offline solution together as well? I don't know - it seems like Outlook / Exchange on crack with social computing capabilities to me....

[InsITGuy]

The key to this will be to place control over the level of interactivity in the interface in the hands of the users. Users who prefer to make use of the extremely interactive and realtime nature of Wave to the max can do so, while the "luddites" or others who prefer more traditional offline composition and review should be able to damp down the interactive features as desired. Users who like the interactivity will probably still end up turning down the volume to some degree during periods of intense interaction or when too many Waves are going on for them to keep track of.

I think a key to Wave's usefulness and adoption will be in allowing the user to decide what degree of interactivity and realtime conversation is appropriate for the situation, their personality, their workload, and even their mood.

[Kimsh]

The key point in the article for me is that Wave is only really useful if you are working on one issue at a time and can give it your full attention. The number of issues I juggle at once is rarely governed by my mood.

I'm REALLY looking froward to trying Google Wave. But I'm sad that we aren't hearing more about security with regard to Wave. How can any modern interpretation of e-mail be created without considering authentication and spam? How can they even BEGIN without solutions to those fundamental problems with traditional e-mail?

After seeing how plug-ins can be sent right inside a Wave, here's something else I'm not looking forward to: Waves full of inane Facebook-style quizes and polls and apps that your friends are going to start spamming you with. "Which Star Wars character would you be?"

[knowles2]

Like all revolution, you think about overthowing the competition first and then think about correcting the faults of the competition later on.

As to the quizzes, just like Facebook there will be filters to filter them out.

I for actually enjoy doing them as way of interacting with people on facebook, certainly it fun to see people criticising the quizzes and then you spot that they filled one in. It addictive and it get people talking. Which I did not see happen as much when there was no quizzes or games on facebook.

[Hellcat]

I like the idea of Wave and watching the demo I was floored at the power of it. I do see a problem with the real time of it. I guess you can turn that off? If you can that would be better, if I'm one on one I may not mind the real time, or if I'm explaining something or using it as a collaboration tool. If I'm using it with multiple people or trying to write something I have to really think about (like a blog), I'd probably turn real time off. There is a lot to like about Wave, but I do see some possible problems (which were pointed out in the article) that can pop up.

I look forward to see where Google takes Wave, I think by the time it actually comes out it'll be much cleaner. I like the idea that it works with the PC, and phones which is cool. I'll look forward to it when it comes out. Until then without really trying it out I'm relying on others and video to get a feel for it. So far it seems like another possible Google hit.

[andrew.mager]

Fine article fellas.

[gefitz]

I really appreciate the sort of "epochal" change an application introduction of this sort implies. All our current methods presume only inconsistent communication channels...this moves towards a communications world where the expectation is that the communication channel is open at all (most) times.

It builds upon the IM model to provide a multi-layered, multi-capability framework of tools with which to work and communicate. REALLY exciting.

[interoperate]

You've neglected to consider the huge impact Google Wave will have in the mobile space.

Across the whole gamut of micro and mini mobile devices, Google Wave is going to be a profoundly important technology platform.

[sxydeeny]

collaborative application framework

[katiepea]

nobody is gonna care about this, instant messaging already has FIRM roots, this is really just not very interesting

[Hellcat]

This is so uninteresting and so many people don't care that everyone is writing about it and talking about it. YOU don't care about it and you're not everybody.