What would email look like if we set out to invent it today Wave and Drowning
They claim it will revolutionise personal communication, they say it will change how we arrange our lives but Wave, Google’s latest web app, mightn’t be as ground-breaking as Google say.
Getting a Google Wave account is a difficult thing. Launched at the end of September to only 100,000 people Wave is mooted as the next step in personal communication. Last Sunday, at 2 in the morning, I was invited to create a Wave Account. Currently is in a very early Alpha preview Wave users can only be invited to use the application by an existing user.
What Is Google Wave?
Much like Twitter Google Wave is a little difficult to explain. Wave is an online communication tool that mixes email, micro-blogging, IM (Instant Messaging, e.g. MSN Messenger, Gmail Chat), Forum and social networking functionalities into one interface. The basic structure of Wave operates like more of an advanced IM system.
Waving
To use Wave you first have to create a new “Wave” (think IM chat window), you then add individual users to the chat, or you can make the chat public (think forum).
Along with adding text users can also add images, audio, video, maps, documents, gadgets and games.
But here is the trick, unlike an IM where once a comments has been sent it cannot be deleted Wave comments can be moved, add-to, and even edited by other people.
Another key point to Wave is that it that the system operates in real time, when chatting with another person you can see what they write as they type.
First Impressions
The most striking aspect of Wave is how slow the system is, although to be fair, the app is currently in a very early preview and any speed and stability issues are expected to be fixed as the system is readied for a full release later early next year.
Visually the Wave interface is sleek and uncluttered, with the screen being divided into 3 simple sections. The navigation and contacts can be found on the left, a list of your waves occupies the centre of the screen (similar to the gmail inbox) and the actual chat box is found on the right.
Using Wave
Testing the app on all major browsers, Firefox 3+, Safari 4, Chrome 2+ and Internet Explorer 7 and 8 I found the app to be relatively stable. The programme did fail to work for a period of time (about 10 minutes) across all browsers with the exception of Safari where Wave was stable with no issues. The app completely failed to work in Internet explorer and, while I was expecting to have some issues with IE7, I was surprised to see that IE8 could also not handle the site.
Opening the site in IE users are encouraged to install Google Chrome Frame or use another browser such as Firefox, Chrome or Safari. Forcing IE to access the site causes the page to crash on load, returning a blank screen and error message.
Using Wave is, at first, a challenge.
The introductory video explains little, and what it does explain is confusing. But basically there are two types of waves; public and private. Private Waves can be between two or more people and can only be viewed by the people involved in the chat (much like a standard IM chat).
