There might just be something in this Google Wave thing.
Yeah I know that it’s the talk of the tech town right now and that you have to be in the “in” crowd to get your hands on an invitation, but I’ve snuck by the red velvet rope of the computer-kid’s club and got my hands on a preview.
For real folks like us the Wave phenomenon isn’t going to be too much of a big deal initially. It’s a bit buggy and the user friendliness just isn’t quite there yet. But I can see what they’re trying to do.
There’s talk that Wave will be the new email but I really don’t think so. Most emails we send are short and sweet. Expecting only one answer from one person. Wave isn’t going to replace this. It’s more of a real time collaboration tool but with non-business likability.
When you log onto the site you have your navigation and contacts folders – just like your email programs. In the middle is the list of messages or Waves contained in your selected folder. And most importantly on the right is your Wave window. This is where the magic is worked. We’ve copied a Wave and pasted it below…have a peruse. But in a nutshell a Wave is like an evolving email message that anyone invited can contribute to.
It may look a tad confusing but hopefully in time the folks working on the usability will polish it up a little and make it sing. Like I said, what we’re seeing in the picture above is a wave I created. We’ll keep it at a simple level so I can cope.
The navigation, contacts and inbox are all been minimised when I maximised the Wave window. Nice.
As we move down the window you’ll see the “subject” line – GITweekly Wave. This is the first line you write into the Wave window.
Movin’ on down you then see your avatar (your face or any picture that you choose to grace us with). Next to it is a plus sign. Hit the plus sign and an add participants window pops up. Choose the people that you’re wanting to chat with and their avatars appear next to yours. Simple.
Below this are a series of buttons allowing you to do simple things like formatting of text and highlighting. Easy.
It’s on the right of these that you get into some great functionality. This is where the email ends and the collaboration and real time communication really starts.
In the Wave screen above you can glance across and see the green “R”. Click this button when you’re typing in a wave and you add the facility to make a VOIP (internet phone call) conference call to any people in the wave. Very cool. Very handy.
To its right you click the yellow “on its side” S. This gives you the strange looking yellow seat buttons. Clicking on the seat reserves a place for you to video chat inside the wave. Move over Skype (well not really but cool nonetheless).
There’s going to be an amazing variety of extensions available by the time Wave launches to the public but your imagination can start envisioning the replacement of email, Skype and all sorts of collaboration tools.
Families will be able to create a Wave where everyone’s invited and family photos, videos and maps could be embedded.
Businesses on the other hand could have intra-office communications run via Wave. Collaboration is one of the major features of Wave and allows real time messaging. Start typing into the Wave and the other members will see your key presses sprawl onto the screen. You could then highlight mistakes and everyone will see them.
Other clever functionality includes adding documents as attachments in the Wave allowing you to keep all research and paperwork in one logical space. Wave will also be able to do real time translations. Type in english that you want to arrange a meeting with your French friend and they’ll read, in real time, a translation asking “what underpants size is your mother”. I love Lost in Translation moments.
Watch this space – Google Wave is big. Will get bigger. And if people aren’t too scared – Will be great. Use it.
I just hope you don’t see this image too often…
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