UPDATE: Since writing this blog post I have discovered an WONDERFUL, FREE, online document called " The Complete Guide to Google Wave" which explains EVERYTHING you need to know. You can find it HERE. Enjoy.
It's been called the "future of email" but I'm not convinced. Unless you've been under a rock for the past two months you've no doubt come across at least one article announcing the newest offering from Google Industries, Wave. You can find more information at www.google.com/wave if you have no clue what I'm talking about. I'll wait for you to get caught up.....
Okay so now you've seen what Google claims Wave can do. It all seems very cool in theory and I have a feeling that someday it may actually be "cool". For now, Wave (which is still in the "invite only" phase) is an alien looking application with familiar elements that never quite gel together in the seamless way Google promises. I'm pretty tech-savvy but I have to admit that after a full day with Wave I still feel technically retarded whenever I attempt to navigate the site.
As I said all the pieces are their; threaded conversations, real-time typing that appears on your screen as people write to you, the ability to embed videos, pictures and music... The possibilities should be endless and I can see, or at least I can imagine how cool this could actually turn out to be but it's just not there yet.
The conversation threads are close in style to that of a message board or the comments section of your favorite blog (like this one) only because Wave is all about seemingly endless dialogues these threads quickly become cluttered. The few Group Waves I was invited to were slowed down by the excessive number of threads and sub-threads they contained. Add in the embedded media and my browser struggled to keep everything flowing as smoothly as depicted in the videos of Wave in action Google has released.
Despite all my complaints I'm oddly drawn to the idea of Google Wave. I'm hoping when they open their virtual doors to the full public and I can get a few of my writer friends on board I can try what I think will be the best application for this product: Collaborative Writing.
Imagine being able to use Wave to seed an idea, allow other to contribute to that idea: other ideas, videos, pictures, mp3's of songs that further inspire the original idea. What makes Wave unique is that you would be able to house all of these things in one streaming conversation that updates itself in real-time. Sounds exciting, doesn't it?
What do you think?
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