Why you should care about Google Wave.

I reciently got an invite for Google Wave and had been using it for a few weeks. Given some of the confusion on it, I thought I'd type up my impressions and hopefully give a bit clearer view of what you would use it for (since, in my opinion, Google's videos leave a bit to be desired.)

So Wave is a collaboration tool. Think a cross between having a forum and a word doc collaboration tool. You'd use it when you're having a discussion with one or many people, and there's a lot of back and forth chat, or some sort of evolving point of view or message. It's not a replacement for e-mail, nor is it really intended to be a chat client (even though you can see people typing in real time.)

Here's an example. I'm currently doing Christmas shopping. Laura and her sisters are coordinating with me on who's getting who what, and where's the best place to get it. So I start a "wave" (you can think about it as a forum thread of sorts, but more on that in a min.)

So I make a post on this Wave (Google calls it a "blip", whatever. =P ) and I write out my list. I've got my full range of editing tools, so I make a bullet list and stuff.

I then invite people into this wave. You can do this by entering in their wave address, or just pulling them from your contacts list. (The latter is much easier.) You get a wave address (usually the host name field of your e-mail appended to "@googlewave.com".) as soon as you sign up.

So my girlfriend Laura and her sisters see this wave now. They don't have to be logged on the moment I make it, it's persistent and sits in their inbox. In this sense though, "Inbox" is more akin to a list of watched forum threads, if we were making that analogy.

So Laura looks at my wave. She's got a couple of options:

1. She can add her own message or reply.
2. She can edit or add to mine.

The second option is really where this shines. Let's say she looks at my list, sees a gift I plan on getting, and knows of a place that's having a sale on it. She edits my post, and adds the link. Maybe she sees I don't know what to get someone else, and adds another link, maybe a picture as well.

She can add a reply as well, and we can carry on a conversation with everyone just like a regular forum, or we can add points or whatnot to earlier posts.

So in many ways, it's like having a free-form forum on demand, with who you want, at any time. And because of it's nature, you don't have to scroll through hundreds of posts every time you want to say something, or plow through tons of "re:" messages and try and interpret which belonged where. And because of the ease and power of it's formatting, you don't get the broken HTML you do with e-mail, nor are you limited in ASCII text and the occasional link. You can embed video, pictures, audio, even specialized applets. Some groups have taken to table-top gaming online. =P

Another thing I find it handy for is a long awaited replacement for Google Notebook. Notebook was a persistent scratch pad of sorts in the cloud where I could dump links and blurbs and whatnot and have it accessible anywhere. I could write myself notes, paste passages from things, type notes from class, meetings, etc, and just have it anywhere so I could file it away later (or just have it filed away on there.) With Google Wave, I can do the same. I make a wave, and then never invite anyone to it. (Which is the default functionality.) I can dump links and pictures or little things I type onto it at work and have it when I get home. And it's private.

And there ya have it. It won't replace other traditional ways of communicating, nor will it cure cancer, but for some things, it looks rather promising.

~Koz