IT Professionals

Is It Time To Google Wave Goodbye?

Posted by on Dec 14, 2009 | 20 Comments

Like many of you, I have a Google Wave account. And again, like many of you, I am completely less than impressed with it. Seriously, what is the point? I have been playing with it for days now and the more I explore it, the more I think this article might be on to something with the idea that it was designed to simply send invites to other people looking to become perplexed with it.

Don’t misunderstand. I know how to create a wave… sort of. But then what? I mean I use my calendar/task applications without any need of also trying to utilize yet another app that in my experience seems to duplicate much of this.

Others still will immediately come to its defense and exclaim that it is a beta product and intended as such. Right, much like Gmail was in beta for YEARS. Give me a break. The truth is simple: It was created before a reason to use it was thought up. That is my take on it. Think I am wrong? Fair enough, let’s hear your positive experiences with Google Wave then.

[awsbullet:google tips]

  • http://earlytechnews.wordpress.com Selina

    In my opinion, Google Wave is not made for everyone.
    May be you did not enjoy it but on my side, i know a number of people who like it so much.

  • http://www.facebook.com/kevinrubin Kevin Rubin

    I’ve been using it heavily with a cousin with whom I’ve been using email more like chat for the last fifteen years for personal discussion, and Google Wave is a definitely improvement.

    It gives us threaded discussion and the various topics broken into visually separate pieces that we can follow without zooming down to the included previous email and so forth.

  • Theodore

    I suppose it has its uses, mainly for business communications perhaps, but it is useless for me. Maybe I just don’t have many friends. I don’t know, I’m sure there are those that use it, but it doesn’t make any sense to me.

  • John Fogarty

    there are lots of good things about wave. I’ve been using it almost since beta started. It’s very powerful, you just have to find the right way to use it.

  • Freedrinx

    I just want an invite because I do want to see if the hoopla is worth it. I love Google and can see this as a way to help me personally and in my businesses.

  • http://twitter.com/nrgins nrgins

    I think google wave is good for one thing: having e-mail-like or real-time conversations with more than two people. Period. It makes it much easier to follow than e-mail; and the Reply feature is great. Plus, no formatting issues, easily embeddable objects, etc., etc. – all make the group e-mail experience much more pleasurable. Other than that, there’s nothing I can see.

    But even with just two people with a simple back-and-forth e-mail, it’s still nicer. Rather than having to look back at past e-mail (if they were included) you have a threaded discussion, which is nice.

    Plus, my son (18 yrs old) hates e-mail. I guess because kids don’t use e-mail like adults and office-bound people do. They rely on text messaging and exchanging messages in Facebook and the like. So Wave give me a platform through which to communicate with him in that he’s comfortable with (posting a msg on a web page) as opposed to trying to get him to check his e-mail.

  • http://allthingsthatfly.com Burke

    Kevin, could you not just call this person? Or txt?
    We are going to try wave for the show, show notes, ect.. but so far.. not sure what to do with wave either.

  • Chris Owen

    Like Selina said, maybe Google Wave just isn’t for you. As a programming student, i have gotten some of my friends involved and we hash out code of our current assignments. We also have mock system design projects and such. Things that require heavy collaboration over a period of time are what this tool is made for. Of coarse people don’t seem to be seeing it that way. All of the negative opinions seem to be that they don’t understand how it will improve their experience. Well, maybe it’s not meant to improve their experience because it doesn’t suit them. However I have been very active in using it and am very happy with it and look forward to seeing it develop.

  • http://www.waynemay.com Wayne May

    This is my opinion … Google Wave is what Google Mail is going to become. By integrating two technologies (Mail and Talk) wave will likely replace gmail, but it will be backwards compatible for pop clients. It only makes sense because we all email and IM all day long, this would make collaboration more interactive.

    On the other hand, Wave could fail miserably. In order to use Wave to its full extent, an IT department would have to deploy Google Wave in-house. I don’t see many IT departments doing this, any time soon, especially with a product that is still in alpha stages. So, only when Google gets some traction and has an adoption of Wave, will Wave have a chance…

  • http://www.envoca.com/blog/ Garrett

    I’ve had access to it for almost a year now because I was in on the early developer beta. I have to say that the problem might be that they focused too much on what people CAN use if for, rather than what people WOULD use it for.

  • Mauricio Avalos

    Well, I think it shouldn’t have been a new product. If some of it’s features were included on gmail it would be worth noting.
    I really understand how it makes collaboration a lot easier and also how it improves communication with your friends but I think it was a mistake making a whole different product for what is basically Email.

    If it gets added to gmail, it will be something really useful and I love it, if it doesn’t I also agree that it will be out of use really fast.

  • http://www.fenixdj.com Stephen Hartley

    Agreed, I’m one of the people who:

    Got an invite
    Got excited about that invite
    Got confused
    Got unconfused
    Got un-excited
    Haven’t used it since.

    I think it has a place…just not sure where that place is.

    ~S~

  • Alex

    I agree with the other comments. This could be big when used at work. I can imagine at big companies employees would rather wave than email for their conversations.

  • http://restlessmouseblog.com J.D.Everett

    I think it’s kinda cool, we use it to pass files back and forth in our home office here. I have some invites if anyone needs one.

  • Jeremy Newton

    It’s nice to use. I would use it more right if i could receive mail from my company address. I like the threaded view. I love that it is real time and it really favours collaboration.
    I think it could be integrated into google mail in the future. That would be great but right now it is limited. I have a lot of friends who have an account with really no reason to check it. Can it replace email as we know it? Its going to be a tough sell to get people to learn a new technology but I think it could happen.
    Don’t give up just yet.

  • http://www.planetsareplaces.com/ Brian Curran
  • http://justenrobertson.com Justen

    The point of Wave is the collaborative real-time document editing, in a nutshell. It is not twitter plus IRC plus your calendar or whatever. Stop trying to figure out which of your existing applications it will replace. Your the guy who looks at a spreadsheet and says, “but I can already put text in tables with HTML” (granted, an anachronistic example). Way to miss a point :)

  • http://www.goodmorninggeek.com Max Swisher

    I agree with John. I haven’t yet found a good use for it, but on sure it could be useful to others.

  • russa

    Wave is a protocol. Anyone can use it. Without Google. It’s open source. You can have your own servers on your own closed network, whatever. Waves are not google specific. You can do with them what you want. Google Wave is just a client for reading, writing, using the protocol. It just happens to be the only client readily available at the moment. But the documentation to write your own client is readily available too. As easy or as complicated to use as you feel like making it.
    All I’m saying is, as inelegantly as possible, is that Google Wave and the Wave protocol are two separate things. And if you don’t like the way Google has done it, make it better

  • http://geeks.pirillo.com/profile/EricFox Eric Fox

    Many people are cursing Google Wave simply because they don’t have any reason to use it. These are people who already have several applications that they are successfully juggling which do much of the same tasks. But what they refuse to do is stop juggling and just use Wave, just for a little while. If it doesn’t work out they can go back to the juggling act.

    However, Google Wave is set up best for communication, not applications. It’s hard to find people you know who already use Google Wave, so people are focusing too much on the applications that come with it. Since these are NOT the main focus they are being left for later.

    Here’s an example of how Google Wave can help a business. You need to set up a meeting but everyone is in a different location and can’t make it. This meeting needs to happen soon. So, you all go to your Google Wave accounts and a Wave is started. Now you are all there in real-time. This seems more like a chat room, though. Now we need to spread around a document to the other members. Instead of sending an e-mail and hoping they get what you are referring to, you can post it into the Wave and place a comment right where you want them to look. They can comment all they want and point directly at the part they are referring to, and even make edits to it when needed. And, thanks to their translation application, if they are meeting with a person of a different language, everyone can understand each other, in real time.

    Now, let’s use a local example, something for the average person… a Gamer, let’s say. We have apps for chess and other such games, sure, but let’s focus on other things. What about a group of D&D players that can’t seem to meet. We change the meetings to Google Wave and everyone gets on. Everyone can talk, in and out of character, everyone can role play what they want. A DM needs to show a map he can just post it. Need to move players around it, they can make edits. Character sheets can be viewed and edited in real time, too. Dice apps can determine effects, and everything can be stored so they can cut back on the notes. And, even if they can’t meet, the Wave is always open, allowing the session to go on, even when no one is able to be around at the same time.

    These are two examples of what one can do with Google Wave, in it’s CURRENT form. They are still improving, expanding, and thinking of how to improve it. If the entire internet was run like this, we would have a whole new age of creation, expression, interaction, and FREEDOM that has never been felt before through a computer. THIS is why Google Wave was made, THIS is what they had in mind before launch, and THIS is why Google Wave, and other applications like it, are here to stay.