So now that some of you have your Google Wave invites (I know not all of you, I don’t even have one for my personal account yet, if it’s any consolation), and we’ve gotten some of that inevitable backlash out of our system, it’s time to figure out just what Google Wave is. And more importantly, what it will be used for.
I tried to answer that on TV the other day, but the truth is that as a new communication medium, it’s hard to describe exactly what Wave is. It’s kind of like email meets instant messaging meets real-time sharing and collaboration, but even that description is lacking. Eventually, if Wave takes off, it’s probably one of those things that will just be understood for being what it is, even if no one can really describe it by relating it to something else.
That said, the video below does a pretty good job explaining a potential use case for Wave. And what’s most impressive is that this video wasn’t created by Google, but rather by a third-party, Epipheo Studios. If you have no idea why you would want to use Wave (at least 3.5% of it), or what you could use it for, this is worth a watch.
[thanks Ben]
I ughh…really want to get wave even more after that.
I don’t.
It’s that same old strategy again: tie everything together (this time not via an OS but by being ’social’) and thereby crush your competitors.
Google is becoming an even bigger monster.
Some day, there will be no Internet left.
Heaven forbid a company leverage its size to innovate. We should ban that sort of crap and instead just rely on bail outs.
…this all sounds like sour grapes to me! Get a grip!! THIS IS CUTTING EDGE THINKING …and what? You DON’T want to use this new technology?? Because of some political-economic high-ground. You’re like a ludite only worse because you’ll be left in techno-limbo – a horrible place full of hypocrasy and self-doubt.
BTW. this video is excellent! Well done to Epipheo Studios. Please contact me for more work!
AND Well done Google – I’m very excited.
Stop being such a conspiracy theorist. Are you feeling melancholy for the days of AOL? Progress is good!
Oh god! I have been crying out for a Google Wave invite and I have been ignored. This video is good.
How many TC stories about Google Wave are going to include the obligatory link to the TC “backlash” story? So far, every one I’ve read this week. I get that this increases impressions on TC, and yes, you called the backlash first (so if it does happen, you’ll get your kudos), but it’s time to let this rest.
backlash against the backlash!
Someone should really coin “lashback” and take it away from the email compliance market.
“lackbash” … ?
For a second there, I thought I was on reddit.
maybe ‘blackass’ ahem ahem
cashlash?
hack-blast
Well…now that’s just starting to sound like Pauline Réage has taken a tech writing gig. That’s just wrong. Cut that out.
Linda Holmes’s “Backlash Tracker” works for online memes too, not just popculture:
http://www.npr....r_build_em.html
Yeh MG iphone is toast when Google adds a wave app to Android….. Google Voive Google Wave -
Android – New Reiging Champion
iPhone- Sleeps with the fishes
*this ad was sponsored by the friends of Arrington, Eringtun & Airington
Google Applications = Win
iPhone OS = Win
Google Apps ON THE iPhone = Orgasmic Bliss.
(Android wont become a champ because it has great applications, the OS is a HUGE part of why the iPhone is what it is today)
Good summary, including the 96.5% yet to be explained functionality as a big ‘?’
The trick is finding individuals that do have wave accounts and beginning the cool collaboration that is at the heart of the service. Registry exist?
MG, I have 1 invite left. Need it?
I sent out 5 invites over 25 hours ago, and no one has received them yet. all were sent to gmail accounts.
I have an image in my mind of a fail whale surfing a wave.
So… after RTFMing, I see now that these aren’t actually invitations, these are “nominations”.
So your nomination might be placed in a queue, rejected, ignored, etc. I have no one to wave with though… which makes this much less useful to me. seems like they would be better off with offering just a few REAL invitations so you can actually start using their product rather than 8 “nominations” which might never get sent out.
I offered to provide feedback, but… what am I supposed to say, the empty white boxes look pretty?
can i get an invite
I want invite too
I have GW, but I don’t see where/how I can give out “invitations” (nominations?). You speak as if you have been given a certain number of invites. I’ve read nothing about that when I signed on (though I did get an invite from a friend). Is there a way I can invite/nominate some of my peeps?
Google Wave’s ability to contextually translate languages in real-time is an amazing feature. This really removes the language barrier when it comes to trade. I’ve been using Google Translate, but being able to converse in real-time will be an awesome feature.
There was a backlash?!
Let me see the time
Right now, everyone on Wave is waiting for their 8 invites to go out. So what you have is people without anyone to talk to looking for random people to test with. What’s now happened is everyone is creating “public” waves, which are basically open free for all forums with hundreds of participants. The technology and the concept are designed for 8 or 9 users max.
A small wave I started with 6 people was great. We actually got a lot done. But my god, the big public waves are chaos. I can’t believe the whole thing isn’t crashing.
I really like the animation in that video, not quite janky enough to turn you off, not too flossy to seem pretentious or inaccessible. Very well done and informative as an intro to Wave. Get that man an invite!
Nice humor touches too.
New communications mediums are not designed. They emerge.
Email was one, SMS was another, twitter a third.
It’s hard to see where a deliberate approach has really taken hold the way Wave wd have to to replace email.
More likely, this will spur innovation in email (and ancillary applications) — and these will get wave like.
So twitter wasn’t designed? Aah, I always it just dropped from the sky, a gift from the Gods…
He means twitter wasn’t intented to be a game changing communication medium.
On the other hand, Wave is setting itself this goal (or it might be the press).
But, communication medium are social phenomenon, they can’t be “constructed”.
Actually, communication medium are definitely constructed. HTML was built at CERN with a specific purpose, it went through design stage, a committee was formed specifically for development, drafts were built and presented… all in the early to mid-90s. They had no idea what would come of it, but it was certainly constructed, very specifically. It was then expanded upon as needs arose, similar to what is happening with the Wave protocol.
The thing will be what is built out of waves, building the technical side will be decidedly easy (especially with Google pushing that along). The groundwork is there, just like email and SMS, there’s no really good collaborative communication protocol around, it has always been that you do something, then someone else does something. Wave allows both of us to work on that something at once. If developers can’t come up with amazing programs from that concept alone then there’s something wrong with all of us.
What comes of Wave’s certainly won’t be constructed, but such is the life of protocols, Wave 2.0 may wind up being very different because of this.
The press, on the other hand, are idiots when it comes to explaining technical concepts, especially if they don’t have a full grasp on it. Techcrunch itself has run plenty of articles that don’t even hint at Wave the protocol, despite that being the point.
Twitter is SMS… Do you think they just sat down one day and said “Hey, let’s make a micro blog service limiting messages to 140 characters?” Really? REALLY?
SMS was created as there was a slack time build into the communications protocol (probably 256 bits) that afterward wasn’t needed.
Friedhelm Hillebrand or a clever engineer found out that he could send 160 character text + the telephone number + additional data that fitted into the 256bits.
Does anyone know if it can replace Atlassian’s Confluence, and possible Jira Studios (sans source control)?
Our plugin enables embedding Google Wave on a confluence page. More details here:
http://jira.atl...owse/CONF-15962
I got an invite from Google and been playing with it for the last couple of days. For the life of me, I don’t get why anyone would start using this over existing methods. I get that it combines multiple methods, but it also has the requirement that everyone that you interact with is on Wave which is not exactly the case. I can’t even experiment because I don’t have any of my contacts using it.
Creating a new medium of communication is not something that just gets invented technically. It has to be accepted globally the same way that email, SMS, and instant messaging. Also, this will never replace those mediums. I know many people who refuse to get a twitter account because they are happy with email.
With the advent of smartphones that can access your email and display it for you right away, why does someone need another method of communication?
I only see Wave gaining ground if it will learn to work with existing technologies as well and integrate them rather than try to replace them.
You don’t seem to get that the G-Wave client can be used as an IMAP/ SMS/ XMPP/ twitter/ w/e client? Even if I use Outlook and you use the G-Wave client, we could still use “email” to communicate. Get it? You will eventually, keep trying!
It would be a godsend for project management! That is why people will use it.
Also, don’t forget that when Facebook o other social networks started, it was the same… now look at how things have changed ! Almost all the people I know are on FB !!
With Wave, it might pretty much be the same. I reckon it will gain momentum, seeing all the buzz about it.
That guy speaks way too fast for my poor english, while the google’s presentation was a lot more understandable for a poor frenchie like me .. ;( nevertheless that new G’s product seems, atleast, fun ny to use! If someone who received an invite do not mind sharing one of his fives (if that’s second-hand invite system is effective) .. Mail me!
next year’s basic interview question for a job interview will be:
How would you describe Google Wave to you grandmother?
haha nice one.
“Well, Grandma, it’s like a really well organized conversation that anyone can join at any point. But with typing.”
Not great, but that’s my best shot.
I like to speak of a universal virtual collaboration framework that removes spatial, temporal, and contextual limitations.
Probably still a bit too technical, though, but kinda accurate…
Nice video. Now I can say that I know at least 2.75% of Google Wave.
Waiting for an invite to know more.
Yeh Google give the man an invite and me too…please.
something just tells me that if an elevator picth for a new product does not work, it just won’t take off. however! Facebook works and if you described that you would not believe it would take off.
i think they have planted a plant and expect everyone to be biologists when they should have shown only the seed and asked for water sort of thing ish…
thank goodness for pseudonyms names…means you can post after wine.
If that video doesn’t justify an invite then I don’t know what does!
The brutal fact is that if it takes this much effort from tech pundits to explain Wave’s value, its dead meat. Just simply explain what pain this is supposed to solve. If you can’t do that, lets just move on.
Email, IMs, Twitter make conversations hard because they easily get disorganized and statements are continually taken out of their proper context. Wave keeps everything in context, so miscommunications get minimized.
Please if anyone has extra invite send it to me. My email address is kennmagaly@gmail.com. I would really appreciate your help. Thanks
Srry brah.. they aren’t “invites” in the traditional sense of beta invites.. they are just “nominations” for invites… oh well…..
2 minute video > 100 TC articles about google wave
Funny, since this comment is on a TC article about Wave.
But I agree with you. Awesome video.
Amen, that was pretty cool
You can still get a Google invite here: http://www.free...vites/index.php – if you can spare $57!
But that can be fake you never know.
Absolutely fake.
Now there are even some fake warnings about scams, and those warnings link to other scams.
All sorted out here: http://bit.ly/1IFIdJ
How exactly is this different than Basecamp?
Federated and open source. It’s a protocol, not a product.
Yeh (not 2 brag…well yeh im braggin’) Googlewave is all that, a bag of chips and a cougar on a Saturday nite Yo !
Oh yeh .. fellow Waverz dont for get to add me :
jfisherace@googlewave.com
Finally, it’s explained!!
So what is more valuable… a Google Wave invite or a Google Voice invite?
Different products dude…
But if you want value you can check out Ebay.
Glad to hear that Google VOICE and Google WAVE are remaining different… especially since I’m very happy with my Google VOICE account and would rather not see it turned into something completely different and renamed Google WAVE.
The translation bit is going to be brilliant. Best marketing campaign I have seen in some time. By having an limited invite, good way to build up hype. I still think it’s going to be brilliant.
i agree that it’s an awesome tool but in order for it to appeal to the masses (what’s the target audience again?), it needs to be fun. are the people with invites having any fun with this product?
give me invite, anyone who can
Google is down, I’m surprised that TechCrunch hasn’t put up an article about this yet. I’m not sure if IMAP Gmail is working, but all their services are currently slow to inaccessible, which is a real pain in the ass if you just wanted to check your damn mail before starting the day.
can someone send me a wave invite please?
trixjo (at) gmail dot com
please and thank you
funny, no one mentions the very blatant marketing pitch for the video guys. nice job though, but let’s be honest, this isn’t really about g-wave is it, nor even about getting an invite? i guess >50% of TC content is just mktg in disguise, with very few genuine interest-driven wow stories.
Hey MG: One has to wonder, if the service is so difficult to describe, how can it really “change the world?” Often, the best ideas are simple ones. Time will tell, of course, but this sure looks complicated.
This guy deserves the invite:))
It’s such a lovely idea and as I said earlier the video does the best job so far of explaining GW, but I come back to this post with new thoughts. Ones of a more practical nature: The video implies it to be some sort of cloud / web-based email solution which immediately alienates corporate use of GW. GW needs to 1) be a local application (ie, a downloadable plugin, perhaps) and 2) integrate with MS Outlook in order to stand a real chance and get in with corporates where there is clearly the most demand for such features that GW seems to offer.
Just found this site: http://wavegadgets.com. Looks like it’s under construction though but says it “Will offer a list of gadgets developed for use within Google Wave”. Interesting…
The fact that it seems so hard to explain is not very promising for the app’s future.
Ladiezz, canst thou not think? Check out the official GW blog / hp. “Your Google Account has not yet been activated for Google Wave”.
The operative word is “yet”.
Once the memory problem has been fixed, everyone with a Gmail account will be activated for GW and it – whatever it is – will replace Gmail, Google Reader and what have Google you….
http://rutube.r...f10bff4db045fe7
Russian have dirtied our heroes of comics
have you guys tried stticky.com ? video: watch how easy it is to share #FF,send videos & pictures to your followers with stticky.com http://bit.ly/tMF23
only 3.5% explained? I wanna explore it 100%, I know it can be done when i start using it. But I dont know really how to start using Google wave.
I usually work with web-based applications like http://www.showdocument.com
I use it for sharing my designs and documents with partners and clients,
but i guess it can used for other purposes too. If you’re looking for a free solution you should check it out.
- Laura W.
hmm.. maybe its the same with google docs where a single file is located in the net where different people (who are allowed) change or make revision..
now its only applied to email.. just a hunch
sounds good but lets see what it’s gonna do.
Didn’t get an invite? Try MooGroups. http://moogroups.com. Rich organized group email discussions directly in your inbox. No signup needed and use any email client. Share files, embed polls, stay in the loop, all without leaving your inbox.
Let me know if you got any questions.
http://moogroups.com
Anybody have an invite to share?
Thanks
bobhodgen (at) gmail (dot) com
This is a fantastic video. I really hadnt a clue what Google Wave was all about until i saw this.
If this is only 3.5% of what Google Wave is going to be, it looks like it’ll be another breakthrough product for Google.
And im sure they will find a ton of ways to monetize the system too!!