People like simple, radical and universal resolutions. As American journalist H. L. Mencken discerned almost a century ago, there is always an easy solution to every human problem — neat, plausible, and wrong.
Google positioned its ambitious and far reaching new product juggernaut, Google Wave, as what email would look like if it were invented today. This strikingly simple and dangerously far-reaching definition by itself calls for public attention. Yet, to really explain what GWave is and what it is not would take the entire magazine (and more).
The GWave’s ambition is to replace email, instant messaging and alike to create virtual in-person interactions. Despite a disappointing, dull appearance and excruciating sluggishness due to intrinsically excessive multimedia use, initial public anxiety about GWave were Everest high. My first impression of the product in action was a case ‘wave’ of a collaborative party planning. A good choice indeed — trying to get a consensus for any sizable meeting via traditional communications is less that pleasurable. Although corporate users have some alternative means, a freely available online tool would be definitely welcomed.
Imagine a browser-based document (more like an open space for different types of media and objects) which could be shared between invited participants of the activity (‘wave’). Everyone can read and write anywhere on the document, drag-and-drop maps, calendars, schedules, photos, etc. Think of a dozen teenage girls compiling a photo book, instantly voting on options (the simple polling feature is quite useful there), correcting the text of each other (this might be a bit more challenging as anybody could overwrite anything at anytime). Curiously, people can see you typing/correcting in real time, letter by letter (unlike real conversations, there are Backspace and Esc buttons, yet everyone will see you backtracking). A feature that could be useful for our industry is an ability to replay the sequence of actions like with a DVR – think about online focus groups, for example.
For a side observer, the carefully compiled demo looked awe-inspiring, conducive, coherent and manageable – like a jazz band seemingly effortlessly improvising in full harmony. Yet, I had an aberrant feeling that everyone had to be equally good in surfing the ‘waves’ to preserve the status quo. Fancy those three hundred page manuals? Even in preview version, GWave has a superfluity of features that bewilder even professionals, with many more to come.
An overwhelming verdict of the early users – GWave, versatile and powerful as it was, did not justify the time to learn it – too confusing. Ditto for me. To be impartial, GWave is just in preview mode now and Google has enough resources to do it right… eventually.
What does it all mean – an obituary for the omnipresent email or a death knell for GWave before it reached adolescence? Neither. In retrospect, despite pundits’ predictions, email has not replaced the phone; in turn, IM, SMS and social media have not rendered emails useless either. Yet these new tools captured their prominent positions in newly minted niches. GWave is likely to claim its space as well. Granted, it will not be easy for Google to seduce corporate IT, which currently religiously enforces social media abstinence via ways of prohibition. Corporations prefer integrated products such as Microsoft’s Share Point as more secure, easier to learn and support.
Even attracting price-sensitive small businesses seems to be an uphill battle for GWave–congruent to the steep learning curve. As the rest of the Web users are “spoiled” by the simplicity of their beloved Twitter and Facebook, this path does not look like a free ride for Google either.
Summarizing everything above, Google Wave is exciting, invigorating, groundbreaking, liberating, fun to use, confusing, complicated, difficult to use, under-overrated, greatly misunderstood, etc. I hope you got the picture. If not, welcome to the club.
