Yes, dramatic post title, but at least it’s not “Wave sucks!” – I actually have a few reasons as to why Google’s latest techwonderchild might not have the impact the authors were hoping for.
Wave does one thing, and one thing well: Simplifies communication. However, like Einstein so rightly pointed out, simplify things as much as possible, but no further, and I reckon Wave’s going into that “no further” territory.
Pick a normal, natural, voice conversation (the ones we’re having less and less of every day). How does it flow? One person starts, mentally composes something, says it, and gives the other person/people time to digest it and respond. It’s a back-and-forth one-at-a-time exchange of information, and it’s proven to work in 1-on-1, 1-on-many, and many-on-many social groups.
Then Instant Messaging comes along, and does pretty much the same thing. One person speaks, others listen, but there’s an advantage now: One person can keep speaking while the others are responding, and the responders have the ability to edit their responses before sending them. Ultimately, it’s the same back-and-forth one-at-a-time medium, with a set of extras, like the ability to completely ignore someone if you’re in the middle of something else, the ability to take back your words before you’ve even said them, and the ability to immediately reference something else on the Internet as part of the conversation.
Skype, for instance, does this extremely well. Single and group conversations, link, file and media sharing, group VoIP and webcam conferencing, all in one.
But now Wave comes along, and tries to push past that “realtime” barrier a little more. In Wave, you watch people typing while they type, and you can start responding before they’ve even finished their sentence. This is starting to infringe on the natural laws of conversation, and it’s got quite a few nasty side-effects.
For one, you know that person that always knows everything, and finishes your sentences for you? They’re generally not nice or productive people to talk to (generally – there are exceptions). It gets even worse when you’re one of those fast-paced people, trying to talk to someone who takes a lot of time to say what they’re trying to say.
There’s also SMS Syndrome. With shrinking character limits and instant transmission, ppl r strtng 2 tlk lik dis 2 sav spc nd gt d msg acrs quikr. To fit more into less, quicker, it wouldn’t surprise me to see people start adopting shortform for a lot of things that they say over Wave.
This has a long-term degradation effect, as English teachers are no doubt experiencing in the SMS-ridden classrooms of today.
And we’re not even at group conversations yet. In Wave, it’ll be a little bit like chaos. Everyone speaking at once, before anyone has even made a point, haphazardly dropping media and links into the conversation? How on earth would anyone get anything done? Imagine trying to have a thought train of your own if you have a railway exchange running through your brain – Wave will be just a little like that.
Oh, undoubtedly, over time, people will realise that the basic, fundamental laws of conversation still apply. Listen before speaking, etc, and will develop “waviquette” as a result. But then, if Wave is used like that, what is the point of having a system like this at all?
Everyone already has Skype, or MSN, or Google Talk, and the only things it doesn’t allow for? Realtime per-character conversations, playbacks (though it has conversation logs, which are arguably better, since you can reconsume at your own pace, as well as find specific stuff on demand), and possibly the only useful thing Wave has introduced: realtime translation.
Put realtime translation into the web-based Google Talk, and you effectively have all the features that people actually need from their IM application.
While no-one’s denying that Wave is impressive technology, a monumental achievement in what can be done with a browser, I don’t think the unenlightened masses of users will use Wave simply because it’s impressive. They’ll use it if it’s useful, and it looks like Google dropped off the steep end of the diminishing-returns graph here: Spending a lot of time and money developing features that are so beyond what people need, that people might not end up using them.
Everything here is based on my opinion of the service, and since you might have another, I have 10 invitations to get rid of give away – just drop a comment if you’d like one. I doubt I’ll be using Wave for anything professional (or personal) in the near future anyway.
I’m afraid I must disagree with just about everything you have written. So much so that I do not have the time to discuss each point. But if I were to pick an example, I would question you’re view that Wave will ‘infringe on the natural laws of conversation’. a) there are no normal laws of conversation, just what you are used to. b) I’ve had people interrupting me for years, big deal. I think technologies like msn and txt msgs have had a far more degrading effect on language than Wave ever could.
P.S. thats yes I would love a Wave invitation
Haha, first insult them, then ask them for free stuff? I like your style
Invite’s on its way.
But yes, we’ll see. I’ll have my doubts right up until the day it replaces email like it says it will.
yea, you know I’m not sure where I really stand on the issues of rising technologies. I like to support them, to see if they can offer us anything useful.
And so I say lets try it, But I usually end up disappointed in the end. Haven’t used msn for about a decade, twitter is pointless. Its all very good but I think we need to realise the good and the bad in all these means of communication. I just wish people talked on a more personal level once in a while.
As for google Wave I am more than ever curious to try it, I don’t know much about it but I think there could be something there. By other big sponsorship in regards to building APIs and stuff is Ribbit which I was really hoping would hold its promise, although it looks like fading in my interest.
Hm well if you ignore the fact that i usually think in a paranoiac way, i think google wave is going to make it. I have not used it yet but google is aggressively taking a bite from every single part of the cloud. So, googles domination of web will reflect to wave.
ps. may i have the pleasure of experiencing it before my paranoia kicks in^^
Granted, they’re being aggressive, but it’s always possible to overextend, and to build things that people just won’t use. Single-signon technologies are only just beginning to take off, but MS developed Passport years ago. You could also say that Vista was a few years before its time. I’m sure that technologies like Wave will eventually integrate into our daily lives and become a standard, but I have serious doubts that it’ll be this particular incarnation that’ll do that.
ps was that your real email address you used in the comment field?
Hm I see your point. Yeah when free e-mail was Hotmail they were able to push passport but it did not make it.
ps. yes it is, thank you
You make good points but ultimately all the tools we use now end up taking up more time and corroding our core communication skills in the process. Tragically, the hype may be enough to persuade people that they need wave. It’s the reason a pc, MacBook owner like me still upgraded from a basic phone to an iPhone – I am addicted to anything that promises to make my comms easier. Whether it actually does or not is almost irrelevant. The question has become simply do I have it?
Well, not *all* the tools, I’d say. If there was ever a revolutionary tool that actually made communication faster and easier, my money’d definitely be on email. Mostly because it simulates the natural forms of communication before it (writing and group conversations).
Any wonder the email newsgroups are still going? Sometimes stuff works, sometimes it doesn’t, and the only real way to find that out is to try it.
Yes please to an invitation.
On wave, I think the question for most people is do I have it more than does it really make my comms easier. Just as Twitter has forced us to destroy the English language to communicate in 140 characters or less, wave may simple encourage yet more compromise on basic standards of quality in communication.
Ayup, on its way.
Another local blogger actually had a fairly interesting viewpoint on Twitter – going beyond the character limit, he also looked at how fluid Twitter was, and how it could be negatively shaping online conversation: http://www.vincentmaher.com/?p=874
It looks useful, but I believe information overload is the problem here, unless you can manage the speed at which everything is coming at you (currently that’s the role of my gmail account)
If you have some more invites, please send one this way, hopefully I don’t abandon my account like I did with Twitter.
PS, google for “SMS lingo must die” with the quotes included, I believe all people in technical fields share the same frustration with SMS lingo. If wave becomes another SMS lingo spam haven, then there’s no more hope for the world left.
Having not read any of the comments yet… here’s my 2 cents. Based purely on your opinion.
1) Einstein knows what he’s talking about
2) So do you in your assessment.
3) I’d love a wave invite so I can play and form my own opinion to either elaborate on what you’ve said or disagree with good reason.
Other arb thoughts. I hate this “sms” lingo. Learn to type properly. Pet hate of mine, calling text messages that are sent via SMS “SMSs”.
Its like calling this your http page. Just a thought.
Well written, well thought out.
SMS lingo FTL…
I’ve “nominated” you for an invite. Looks like Wave takes their time when sending the things. Only took my colleagues a day to get theirs, though.
It’s funny, really – at the moment, I have most of the “upper end” of the tech and social spheres in SA in my contact list. They’re hardly ever online. Maybe that says something about Wave, lol.
I believe Wave will find a firm home in joint document collaboration. I’ve worked on four waves where there were a maximum of five people on each, and the content running eventually to many pages. We quickly saw that there was no value in “free-for-all” talking over each other. It’s not the sexy end of the market – but in our applications proved to be very productive. We used a “agile development” sprint philosophy when working – found it the easiest collaboration tool I’ve ever used.
Glad to hear you had a good experience with it, but it looks like Wave might only appeal to the people that need that sort of rapidity.
You have companies like Google and Twitter pushing for “more realtime, more faster, more information, more NOW”, and you’ve got just about every scientific endeavour into human concentration, productivity and mental stability going “turn that shit off”. These high-speed information exchange innovations might just be pushing it a little too far. We’ve gone through smoke signals, runners and the postal service to email – do we really need fiberoptic speeds? At which point, in the name of faster communication, do we start fusing synapses together?
I’m all for better and faster technology, and like you’ve pointed out, Wave can be useful, but there is (or rather, will be) a point of diminishing returns on speed and information load. Simply presenting the information faster doesn’t necessarily make it easier to process.
Thanks for the invite Wogan, got mine this morning.
Time for a little play …
Pooling all data from dispirit sources of email/IM/Social media is a modern day version on what Google did for search in pooling the plethora of websites when you think of it. Whether it can pull it off remains to be sen. Either way, current email is equivalent to faxing… complete waste of time IMHO.
I’d be keen to see for myself if you still have an invite?
Except that email is far more robust. I mean really, given how much communication it drives worldwide, can you really consider it a waste of time?
You’ve been nominated for an invite – it’ll take a while to reach you.
Interesting.. I’ve played with it a bit, and I agree that it’s a tool looking for a function.. but I think it has some possibilities.
As far as faxes are concerned… the issue there is that there is a ID 1 T solution in a machine that even the neo-luddites can use to send something.. Those of us that are happy with scan and email have made a leap beyond that.. I do think though that a physical “gadget” that used the net for transfer would be useful..
JD
Still, based on our experiment this morning, it’s just cumbersome. Wave might end up being one of those technologies that the public can hardly use, but when installed internally and modified for an organizations needs, might prove to be a good system.
I remember reading somewhere that by sticking Wave on top of SAP as a collaboration component, everyone found it immensely useful for realtime meetings, sharing, etc.
Interesting points. I haven’t had a chance to check out Wave yet. Mind sending me an invite?
Nominated – it’ll take a while to reach you. Feel free to ping me when you finally get in – everyone I’ve invited has been really quiet…
Dear Wogan,
Please send me a wave invitation. I like to play on it
You’ve been added to the list. It takes a day or two before the invite is sent, but it’s on it’s way. Enjoy!
It’s like twitter in its infant stages, at the moment it’s just a tool, we still need to find ways to use it before it will become useful.
Yeah, as per my comment above, it might find use as an internal collaboration tool, but we tried it this morning with 4 local users (2 active), and it was clunky as hell.
Also, like I predicted, the ability to watch what other people are typing letter for letter – as technologically impressive as it is – doesn’t allow you to actually compose your thoughts before sending them. The moment you try rephrasing something, it’s too late.
And Newton said: “What goes up, must come down.” That works with hyped up trends as well. BTW, I agree 100% with Wogan and his article. The typing of the letters as you communicate is the bullshit right there. I don’t want people seeing what I type before I complete my writing. I’d most likely type in my text pad before hand, then copy and paste. Then I’d ask myself, what’s the point? Mind as well use Skype for that. Google Wave=Lame.