Last May I wrote about Wave, an exciting new application from Google.
Wave is a real-time collaboration tool. I was very excited about the platform because I had spent months on the road telling people the future of business would be collaboration. My predictions came to fruition with the advent of Wave.
On my last night in New York at last October’s Photo Plus Expo I received my prized and long-awaited invite to test Wave. It didn’t take long to recognize the platform’s value and potential for opportunity. Unfortunately, the system was sluggish.
Once a public or private Wave took off, people eventually stopped participating. It took too long to load. Users found it difficult to add content. Success was punished.
Another inconvenience was being automatically added to a Wave after you opened it. Imagine landing on a Web site contact page and being automatically added to its e-mail list.
Last week Google opened up Wave to the world. Many of the functionality issues have been addressed. It seems to operate at a higher speed so that I now can view my Waves with ease.
In the last six months I have used Wave as a personal Internet note pad for my podcasts and blog posts. I’ve attempted to use it for collaboration on a few projects, but e-mail and Dropbox.com quickly replaced Wave. The traditional notification systems were better than Wave’s program and people seemed to forget about the original Wave. Earlier in the year Google addressed this issue by adding e-mail notification to the system.
Unfortunately, a year after Wave’s introduction the wonderful time-saving, futuristic and life-changing applications or extensions promised are still nowhere to be found.
As cool as the iPhone is, it would not have the same appeal and success if it didn’t have all the amazing applications available.
A year later, Wave is still technology without a practical or revolutionary use. When I open the extensions gallery on Wave, I find approximately 60 extensions. About half of them are the original extensions for which I could find little use in the last six months. There are extensions and gadgets available outside the gallery, but finding and installing them is not an easy task.
However, Google made the right call on migrating some of its wonderful real-time technology to Google Docs. As I’ve said since Wave’s introduction: It’s not Google Wave, it’s the technology that is important.
If Wave is to become a player, it needs more applications. We don’t need more weather maps, board games or lists. We need real-time business and collaboration tools that amaze us and make us better communicators and business people.
Rosh
P.S. If you have discovered an extension for Wave worthy of sharing, please list it in the comments.
