Well, I have to say that this post was inspired by Robert Stanke and his post “First impressions of Google Wave“. It was inspired in two or three different ways. First off, Bob invited me to Google Wave so I could actually give it a try. Second, we were discussing our thoughts via a Wave. Third, his article made me really think about what my impressions were.
Lots of Potential
This Wave has a huge amount of potential energy in it. By providing a collaboration/social tool in the current collaboration and social wild west that we are in… it has potential to explode in numbers. That will be a huge help because right now it is a little bit of ghost town.
When some of the features get added I think that the uses will begin to grow. Imagine being able to throw a document into an interactive wave with many of the people you are collaborating with and be able to mark up and discuss it all within the Wave. Huge collaboration opportunities.
Once the tool matures and the clients for mobile applications mature… I can imagine this being an amazing “Work Anywhere” tool. Being able to stay in contact and collaborate anywhere will truly take things to the next level.
Ability for Google to start merging their products – HUGE potential. With the addition of Google Voice and Wave to the toolset at Google there are quite a few interesting and amazing tools. Hopefully the Google team will start working to bring the packages together. Being able to communicate via Wave, Email, Video, Chat, Mobile Phone, etc… all from one tool (or dashboard) will be truly amazing. We’re not there yet. Google also has some filling in of the gaps to get the necessary support features (read Contact Manager)
There a bunch of huge potentials to this tool… what do you see as the biggest potential?
Partial Hype
I truly believe that Google has learned the art of viral marketing. They through out some seeds that exploded and grew and built the hype. Now many are believing that Google Wave will do everything that they have ever dreamed. It’s a neat tool… but we’re not there yet.
An example of the hype: “See as the other person types”. Umm… so what? So the person on the other end can see how many times I have to use the backspace key? Or so I can finish their thoughts? I’m not exactly sure I see the utility of this feature but it generated some buzz.
It’s a Preview
Obviously the version that is currently available is not only “Pre-Release” it’s actually even “Pre-Beta”. It is a Preview Release. This means that if it breaks don’t complain and don’t call Google. It is a half written toy that they don’t support yet. They’d love to hear your feedback… but don’t expect what’s there to be available tomorrow or even 20 or 30 minutes from know. So, it’s still quite rough around the edges.
Google Talk 2.0
My first reaction was that it really is the next step in IM and collaboration suites. I simply said “Google Talk 2.0″. I’m not completely convinced at this point that it’s the next revolution/evolution of the Internet or it’s Web 4.0 (or 6.0 or 7.0 or wherever we are now). I do think it is the next step in path. It definitely makes some tweaks to the current paradigm of messaging and collaboration. It’s a step in the right direction.
With so many messaging options now, where does Wave fit it your strategy?
First Wave Ridden
photo credit: tylerdurden1Well, after having spent a little time riding the Wave, I will say that it is a neat idea. It has a huge amount of potential to grow into a powerful tool. Google has successfully created amazing buzz around it so hopefully once they begin really opening it up, it will be widely adopted. Is it the next HUGE thing or will it be just another cool tool? I’m not sure yet.
All in all, great preview release Google! I am excited to see where this tool goes and how it begins to merge with GMail, Voice, GTalk, Docs, etc. I think that the potential for it is quite large. I believe that there are few companies who can probably achieve this lofty goal and Google is one of them. It’s going to be a fun ride….
Alright let me have it… did I pick the wrong beach?
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