Ready to Ride the Google Wave

Average: 2 (8 votes)

I'm going to go out on a limb and say today may be the day that social media was changed forever.  I say this because today Google Wave is going live to the public (although it is via invitation ).  People are scrambling to get invites and the hype is continuing to grow.  Just search eBay for "Google Wave Invite" and check out what people are paying to get a first look at the service. So, why the hype?  Part of it is just the fact that Google has released something new.  They have a built a solid reputation over the years and have a pretty loyal group of fans.  Try doing a search for Google Wave online and you will see several articles and blog posts describing the service.  Many of the blogs have comments from people willing to pay money and do all sorts of odd favors to get someone to invite them.  I won't go too deep in the details (see my links below if you want to read more about Wave), but here is why I think this service is such a big deal:

  1. The ability to create embeddable objects or "waves" that can be snapped into any website.
  2. Drag and drop file sharing in the web browser.
  3. Wave playback.  Watch how a discussion unfolded over time by rewinding it and playing it back.

A couple of the better developer previews, I have read, can be found here:

As of 8:30PM CST, the invites are either trickling out or haven't gone out at all, based on some Google searches and blog posts like this one: Google Wave Invites are still coming....in a few hours.  I'll be watching and hoping for my invite to show up for the next couple hours.  Hopefully I get one, if not I guess I'll have to wait for Google to expand the roll out.  Either way, I'll be sure to follow up with my thoughts on the service after I get to spend some time using it.

Stay tuned and good luck, if you are also waiting for an invite...

Matt (Technovation)Matt (Technovation)

Comments

It'll never catch on - too complicated/abstract. Don't fall for "this technology will change everything". When Flash was released, that was the promise... same applies to everything these days - websphere, CSS, Javascript, Java (what a joke), Flex... etc. Not that these are all ideas for the trash but it takes many many years for things to catch on (if at all) and their impact is 1/100th of what was promised. How many years did we have to wait for Flash to be so prevalent that everyone had it and now it is replaced with Javascript libraries. Mark my words, a year from now, some people might have heard of it and some might even be using it. After 3 years, if it catches on, maybe a small percentage of people/sites will be using it.

Thank you for the comments! You make some excellent points. It is difficult to guess what will catch on and what will not. I've used Wave a little since I originally wrote this post and if it stays in it's current state, I agree it won't go very far. That said, I believe Google is on the right track and they will continue to add features. Many (including me) believe that email is dying. There is some evidence of this in the current trends (especially in the younger generations), which show people migrating to real-time and often social channels. On occasion rumors surface that Google is interested in buying Twitter. Imagine what that could mean to Wave...

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