While we’re on the topic of product announcements, Google’s announced Wave, which is all about rich, multi-threaded, real-time communication. It is, according to its developers, the answer to the question “What would email look like if we set out to invent it today?”

I don’t have access to Wave right now. Even if I did, I don’t have time today to review it myself. (I’m due at Drexel in an hour.) Here are posts from Wired, Tim O’Reilly, and TechCrunch (plus a TC video interview with Wave’s developers) that you can digest. That said, here’s the best, most concise summary of Wave I could find (from the Wired article):

“There are few effective ways to communicate within small groups, whether co-workers, friends, or family. Most of us use e-mail, just addressing a new message to a bunch of people. This starts a thread, which eventually gets twisted and fragmented into side conversations and becomes more and more confusing. The more-organized among us use tools like IM or IRC chat rooms, wikis, group blogs or web apps built for threaded communications, such as FriendFeed.

Google Wave is an attempt to replace not one but all of these methods, rolling threaded conversations, real-time chat, nested comments, media sharing, link sharing and wiki-style collaboration into a familiar interface that looks and behaves like an e-mail inbox, complete with folders for keeping things organized and a search box for digging up older threads.”

It sounds interesting, but it also goes against my Keep It Simple Stupid sensibilities. I guess I’ll have to use it for awhile before I make any judgements.

Submitted by: Dan Giancaterino, Education Services Manager
on May 28, 2009 - 1:58 pm

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