I was thinking of it more along the lines of a content management system than a web browser.  If Google manages to implement the features they demoed in their I/O presentation and they make it easy for web developers to integrate Wave-hosted features into their sites, I see the potential for Wave to standardize the interface people use to contribute to blogs, forums, social networks, etc.

As an example: a user goes to comment on a blog post and is given the same tools in the same configuration with the same terminology and iconography as she had when she wrote a product review at another web site, which was the same interface she had while posting an update to a social network.  I think if Wave is going to make any real impact, this is the kind of impact it could make, and the kind of impact that most interests me.  If it's just shooting to replace email, I think it'll have the same issue BluRay is having: it's better, but most people are just fine with their library of DVDs, thank you very much.

Wave can't do any of this right now, and I'm skeptical any tool will be able to bring all these different forms of communication and collaboration under one roof.  It's exciting to see the ambition, though, and from a company that may just have the time, capital, and expertise to pull it off.

That, or I'm just fond of Google's Kool-Aid these days.  Mmmmm, Wild Berry Blash.  So good......   =o)

Pat



On Thu, Dec 3, 2009 at 9:53 AM, Zachary Johnson <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
Huh, you sure are giving Google a lot of credit!  Nothing wrong with that I suppose.

Me... I'm skeptical.  Email revolutionized communication and became a standard way for people to interact on the internet, but there's a thousand different email applications, both desktop and web based. There's even the divide between plain text and HTML emails.

The web browser may be a better example of a revolutionary communications platform that (despite the variety of choices available and the differences between them) comes close to presenting a "standard interface through which the majority of people interact" with the internet.

Wave *may* just prove to be the standard protocol for a revolutionized internet communication (still skeptical) but I just don't see everybody interacting with the internet through some sort of Google-made Wave Browser.  Google has at least been smart enough to open up the protocol, which may make a future where there are several competing Wave browsers on the market just like web browsers now.  Perhaps you weren't suggesting anything more than that, Patrick.

If Wave proves to be nothing more than another web application that you interact with in your web browser, then I don't really see it being *the* ubiquitous feature of post-Web 2.0.  I think it'll just be one of many things we use.  Well... if we use it at all.  Not all of Google's inventions are successful.  And so far, the few times where I thought to myself "Ooh! I could use a Wave for this!" I've been really disappointed with the User Experience.

Ok, I'll give Google some credit, too: They must be doing something right if we're even having this conversation.

Zach


Patrick Haggerty wrote:
Right now, I think Wave is more a toy than a full tool.  Part of that is its feature set isn't complete and part is that we're all treating it like a toy.  What I think Wave is ultimately going to become is a unified interface for Web 2.0.  If they manage to integrate the service into social networks and blogs and forums and so on, we'll have one interface for the majority of online contribution and collaboration.  Sure it's advertised as the next iteration of email, but I think its greater contribution will be to standardize the interface through which the majority of people interact with the web.


On Wed, Dec 2, 2009 at 9:19 PM, Peter Fleck <[log in to unmask] <mailto:[log in to unmask]>> wrote:

   Google Wave has been fairly successful in organizing the Other
   Future of News (OFON) conference. Julio Ojeda-Zapata provides some
   details at the Pi Press site.

   http://blogs.twincities.com/yourtechweblog/2009/12/local-media-writer-harnesses-google-wave-for-planning.html



   ======================
   Peter Fleck
   [log in to unmask] <mailto:[log in to unmask]>

   612-424-5107




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