Riding the Google Wave
Google has been touting Wave as a “game changer” for the way people communicate. Although the hype has been a bit preemptive (read Segway as a “game changer” in transportation) as Wave is still not fully functional and developers have been steering clear of app development.
There are a few things that are certain at this point - Google Wave is not for casual users and it will require a paradigm shift in the way people communicate if it is to become mainstream.
First, Google Wave is not for the casual user, because it is far too complex for the user that just wants to send e-mails or chat with friends/co-workers. It does not follow the simple e-mail visualization that most e-mail programs use, which has meant bringing new messages to the top. For Wave, new messages are embedding into the wave at the point a user wants to respond. Wave allows you to collaborate and for multiple users to interact with a conversation in real-time or at a later time. Think of it as the steroid injected offspring of a chat room and Gmail. This can prove to casual users to be confusing and hard to follow. Wave is about chatter and not nice neat threads of info. Each Wave can have an unlimited amount of conversations going on at the same time, so unless you are naturally high or rely on a steady stream of caffeine, Wave is probably not for you.
Which brings me to the paradigm shift. Wave is complicated because it is challenging the way we traditionally communicate by bringing together forms of communication that have been historically separated: real-time chat and voice (think IM or telephone), time-separated written (think snail-mail and e-mail), and face-to-face (don’t think bad breath). Wave is trying to bring all of these different ways we communicate into one platform. It is not hard to tell why this isn’t for the casual user, but more for the power user that is communicating with all of these tools constantly. Its trying to change the behavior from carrying cellphones, having e-mail, watching webinars, listening to conference calls, IMing, and stamp licking, along with Skyping and faxing, all into one platform.
Thinking about giving it a try? Here is the best explanatory video we could find.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xcxF9oz9Cu0