Google Wave has been making big news recently, what with all the hype of its preview finally reaching the eyes of its adoring fans – and I finally got my hands on it too after my invite finally coming through.
I do admit that I was pretty excited, like a little school girl, giggling with the endless possibilities of collaboration that Google Wave had promised, but then I hit a few snags, like the whole ‘it being rubbish’.
To start off with though, I felt pretty lonely, there was only one other person (the person who invited me), to play with – he had Google Wave for a few days before and was finding it a little boring to use by himself, so I think Google were too slow on the invites.
1. Usability Sucked
Google products are renowned for being easy to use, without generally even having to think about it, but I found Google wave, clunky, boring, difficult, and just damn right annoying. You can see when other users are typing, providing they are online at the same time as you. What is the point in that feature? So that people can laugh at me making a typing mistake? Does it add anything? NO. All it made me want to do was when 2 people were online, was to not add an extra message, but exchange messages by first typing them, and then deleting them to type my next message. It felt like the devolution of instant messaging. And Practically nothing was explained. Plus I was too lazy to watch all the videos.
2. What are they offering that email does not offer already?
Can anyone spot the real difference between email and this, so far it looks like they should just update their Google Mail with the same stuff, allow the ability to add in funny videos, maps etc, and your done. Otherwise they are kinda making 2 products in competition with each other. As far as collaboration goes, how exactly can you use it to collaborate? Oh wow you can add voting, you can upload some files that everyone can access, this is hardly revolutionary stuff is it? Am I being too harsh, but so far I can’t actually see a purpose for it (at least as a web designer).
3. Cloud Computing is Evil
Cloud computing will be the death of us! The Death of us!!!!! But no really, it’s not a great idea giving all your data across to someone else, then getting all upset when they use your data to sell you products in the form of advertising (yes Google, I’m on to you) – AND when the services goes down, i.e Google Mail, you have no email, and for businesses who rely on it, its not good to be without it for too long! It costs money when these services do not work. If you compare it to your own dedicated in house systems, then they are more reliable, but also more expensive. I can see things going more and more this way in future, and I can understand why, its happening now with Google Wave, but I also think that people must understand the dangers of giving away their company sensitive data to another company to look after! Thats mad, its like Google using a ‘Microsoft Wave’ Product to plan their next big online hit. NOT GOING TO HAPPEN – is it? Yeah, you heard! Its not!
Conclusion
I’m not impressed by Google Wave yet, but I also appreciate its a Beta and I have no friends. Its hard to collaborate with people when you don’t know any. But I think Google have created a tool that no one needs… YET, but lets see what happens when developers get their hands on it FOR Google and make something useful.
