[Kvitne]

Since I don't want to type all this shit out, I'm cutting and pasting from another article about this:

Quote

Testing Google Wave: This Thing is Tidal

Everyone’s been talking about it: Google Wave (Google Wave reviews). Google (Google reviews)’s super communication tool has been a top trend on Twitter, a focus of media speculation, and was even able to knock Microsoft’s Bing from the top of the news cycle. But almost all the hype has been based on the demos - almost nobody’s actually got to try out Google Wave.

Well, thanks to a few of our friends, we had the opportunity today to try out the alpha version of this groundbreaking new service. From creating waves to joining in on discussions, we put the newest Google sensation through the ringer. Does Google Wave stand up to the hype?

Interface

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Overview: The interface, at first glance, mirrors email. It’s intuitive, quick to load, and boxed up into easy-to-divide sections. As you’ve probably seen from demos and screenshots, the left-hand column has not only navigation, but contacts, which is more important in Wave than it is in email. Each box can be expanded or shrunk just like any browser window or folder, so you can really control the look and feel.

Central to Google Wave’s interface is search - you create specific searches based on not only keywords, but activity, history, person, and more. We’re sure that there will be a large library of search commands useful in organizing your waves.

Another bonus: each box can be collapsed to save you room. You can also make it so that each appears as a small toolbar, saving you even more room.

The good and bad: It’s not as complicated as some other screenshots have shown. The huge selling point is that it’s customizable: you can add and remove different elements and gadgets to make it as complex or as simple as you want. We’re still not sure about what some of the commands do, though.

Overall assessment: Slick and easy to navigate.

Communication

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Overview: Communication within Google Wave is more like an IM conversation than email, but with several twists. In the example above, you can see the power of threaded conversations. Users, instead of replying at the bottom of a wave, thread their conversation in-message. This makes following lines of thought easier. You can also see edits made by others via highlights with the person’s name to the right.

It’s also easy to add new waves. You just type in a message and drag friends into the box. It’s seriously as simple as that. On the subject of organizing conversations: this is done just like email, via folders like archived, starred, inbox, and trash. There’s a focus on adding searches and folders to organize different waves, wavelets, and blips.

Another big plus: it’s so easy to add files and images to all of your messages.

The good and bad: Replies are a bit funky. They sometimes appear at the top instead of the bottom, although Google in its debug thread states they’re going to make it easier and more predictable to do. Also, it’s still a bit slow loading, but probably will be solved in future iterations.

Overall assessment: It’s definitely more intuitive than email in terms of having a conversation, but it still has too many bugs to provide a definitive conclusion here.
Extensions

Extensions

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Overview: Gadgets and Robots (which we explain in our Google Wave Guide) are the two key ways to extend Google Wave’s functionality. Adding gadgets is as simple as going to the top menu (currently called debug) and picking the gadget you want to add. Gadgets are added only within a wave. We personally would like to be able to create a box or two for useful apps like Twitter (Twitter reviews) or the Basecamp (Basecamp reviews) project management system.

Yet playing with gadgets within waves is not complex at all - after adding Magnetic poetry, we were immediately able to use the app to move the magnets around, no problems at all.

Robots are easy to add to your waves…if you know the name of your robot. There doesn’t seem to be an easy way to differentiate between people and robots. There should a search function or a better menu for finding and adding robots to your waves.

The good and bad: It’s just so easy to add gadgets and robots. Some of them need debugging, but this is an alpha platform. Organization for robots is lacking.

Overall assessment: Adding gadgets and robots is easy, but the organization still needs work. Can’t wait for more applications, though!
Conclusion

Overall

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Overview: Our initial impression of Google Wave is a very positive one. Despite being an early build, communication is intuitive and not cluttered at all. User control is even more robust than we first expected. You can already customize the look and feel of your Wave, and don’t think it will be long until themes and draggable boxes are in as well. We also want to note that it works by far the best within the Chrome (Chrome reviews) browser, which makes sense.

It really seems to focus on contacts - on people - which we feel is the direction communication is taking. Email applications currently focus less on people and more on the content of the message. We think tools like Facebook (Facebook reviews) and Twitter better balance the need to know the person behind a message and the message itself. Google Wave moves in that direction.

Finally, we would like to reiterate this point: it’s not as complicated as it seems at first look. It’s only slightly more complicated than your standard email client.

The good and bad: While still littered with bugs, Google Wave runs smoothly. The navigation is great, organization ranges between decent to underdeveloped, and the communication style feels more intuitive than email.

Overall assessment: It’s already got certain aspects, like navigation, absolutely right. With some great 3rd party apps and greater customization, Google Wave could actually match its hype.

http://mashable.com/...ogle-wave-test/

This looks to be revolutionary, that is, if people actually make the change to using Wave. The main obstacle that I see to this being a huge success is people's inability and unwillingness to change their habits. I mean, I'm still waiting for Google to become the next AIM, but it's never going to happen. I have 3, maybe 4, Google contacts. Not exactly an extensive friend list. I really want this to succeed very badly, I just can see the wasted potential in its future because of people's stupidity.

Anyway, for those of you still interested, I'm posting the video of the keynote that the makers of Google Wave gave the other day. It's a bit more than an hour long, but I'd suggest watching it. It's really incredible.

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•  wave_communication.png (69.08K)
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•  wave_extensions.png (90.57K)
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•  wave_interface.png (157.39K)
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•  wave_overall.png (184.7K)
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[KennEH!]

Google sells all the information they gather from their programs on my PC. That is probably the only reason I wouldn't use this.

[Kvitne]

The thing is, it's completely open-sourced, meaning that other companies and services can take and directly implement this themselves. No reporting back to Google then.

I really don't care what Google does with my information. Am I the only one?

At least you looked at this KennEH, I'm glad someone did. I predicted a topic with no replies at all.

Also, people really should look at the first 10-20 minutes of video at least. It'll blow you out of the water. I mean, the rest of the video is amazing as well, but the first little bit at least gives you a peek at what Google Wave is.

[[Novelty]]

I like Google, it makes me think the unlimited possibilites I can do with Wave.

EDIT: I feel bullied.

This post has been edited by Loelin The Hedgehog: 01 June 2009 - 02:46 AM

[???????]

I'll have to watch this later. I'm about to begin finishing up my part of a program, which I should've begun doing yesterday.

Maybe it's because I'm feeling drowsy right now and/or am antisocial, but I wasn't too wowed by this. Being able to play chess with others through it did catch my eye, though. Maybe the video will change my mind.

This post has been edited by ???????: 01 June 2009 - 02:59 AM

[Kvitne]

It's more of a complete rethinking of email and IM, sort of combining them into one. The developers themselves describe it as "What email would be like if it were created right now" instead of way long ago, before the internet.

Knowing you and the way you like to communicate, I can't see you being especially interested in this.

[Rugdog]

pretty nifty

["That Other Guy"]

It seems really cool. But it feels like one of those things where it looks great in theory, but then loses potential because not enough people end up using it.

[Kvitne]

That's exactly what I think might happen to it. Which I'm really bummed about.

And Loelin, I wasn't saying that you had to agree with me or something. I'm not that egotistical. I just don't want you making moronic comments like, for reasons unknown to me, comparing GM to Google. I mean, that was just a "what the fuck?" post. I didn't want you derailing my topic with your idiocy, so I decided to act. That is all, and that will be the last time that I justify my actions as moderator.

[Requiem]

I'm not going to join the hype train just yet, but I do like some of the concepts.

[[Novelty]]

Kvitne, on Jun 1 2009, 07:00 AM, said:

And Loelin, I wasn't saying that you had to agree with me or something. I'm not that egotistical. I just don't want you making moronic comments like, for reasons unknown to me, comparing GM to Google. I mean, that was just a "what the fuck?" post. I didn't want you derailing my topic with your idiocy, so I decided to act. That is all, and that will be the last time that I justify my actions as moderator.

That is why we need to implement a Serious Discussion forum.

[Requiem]

I'm not sure we have enough conversations going on to even warrant splitting them further. I was thinking about an "everything" forum to get around this problem. But back to the Wave.

[???????]

Loelin The Hedgehog, on Jun 1 2009, 05:19 PM, said:

That is why we need to implement a Serious Discussion forum.

Open Discussion is the "Serious Discussion forum". Its child forum is usually where all of the dumb/casual topics are started and its child forum's child forum is where all the super-terrible topics spawn/end up.

This post has been edited by ???????: 01 June 2009 - 11:53 PM

[[Novelty]]

???????, on Jun 1 2009, 06:52 PM, said:

Open Discussion is the "Serious Discussion forum". Its child forum is usually where all of the dumb/casual topics are started and its child forum's child forum is where all the super-terrible topics spawn/end up.

Oh I see. Thank you, Marx. Although your question marks, you still give direction.


With Wave, I just don't see it happening. Google's reign is like Microsoft's 20 year reign; after a while, they just get dumb, lazy, rich, and happy.

This post has been edited by Loelin The Hedgehog: 02 June 2009 - 12:04 AM

[Kvitne]

I'm sorry, Loelin, but I just don't see how Google reinventing the way that people communicate electronically in a revolutionary way is dumb or lazy. Do you even understand what Wave is?

[NiGHTS Noob]

I don't know about it. It definitely looks cool, no doubt. I'm just weird and irrational, I hate having one thing to do everything with. I just have this need to have multiple things to do different stuff.

That being said, I'll still probably try to get used to it when it comes out. I've never liked instant messaging a whole lot, but this could get me into it. Who knows? The all-in-one thing might grow on me too.

[[Novelty]]

Kvitne, on Jun 1 2009, 07:39 PM, said:

I'm sorry, Loelin, but I just don't see how Google reinventing the way that people communicate electronically in a revolutionary way is dumb or lazy. Do you even understand what Wave is?

Yes, I understand what Wave is. Its a Social Collaboration tool used in combination of widgets and contacts.

Microsoft did something similar, I think it was called HyperTerminal. Come on, all Google did is port that version to the web.

[Kvitne]

Okay yeah, like I thought, you're not getting it.

True, some of the functionality that is found in Hyperterminal can be seen in Wave, but it is nowhere near a port of the shitty Hyperterminal. That's complete bullshit and this is what I mean by posting about something when you have no idea what you're talking about. This is meant to replace both email and instant messaging, integrating with things like blogs, Twitter, etc, to unify all of your web communication.

[nick_phizz]

I don't even know why certain people even try...

What I want to know is how the hell did they put that video on youtube?! It's over an hour long!

["That Other Guy"]

They're google. I'm pretty sure they can do whatever they damn well please.