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Google Wave Invitation Exchange: Haiku Contest

Ok, let's make a deal. If you received your Google Wave invitation today you have eight more to share. How about passing one on to a deserving commenter?

To stand a chance at earning an invite from a generous Google Wave News reader still your mind and crank out a haiku describing why you deserve such an honor. Maybe Google didn't see you as worthy but one of our readers will!

Remember folks it's 5-7-5.

First Impressions: Google Wave Invitations Round II

Did you get your Google Wave invite today? One hundred thousand were sent out so they went fast. Don't give up hope - maybe one of your friends will pass on an invitation to you.

Google clearly indicates that Wave is not ready for prime time and this round of invitations is designed to test scalability. In this beta version Wave is still missing core features related to user permissions.

If you received a Wave invite today jump into the comments and share your joy.

If you didn't get one this round then tell us how you are handling that empty feeling. We are hear to help.

100,000 Google Wave invites on the way?

The official Google blog indicates that 100,000 coveted invites will go out on 9-30-09. Those lucky recipients will also be able to invite others:

We'll ask some of these early users to nominate people they know also to receive early invitations — Google Wave is a lot more useful if your friends, family and colleagues have it too. This, of course, will just be the beginning. If all goes well we will soon be inviting many more to try out Google Wave.

Read the full story right here. And keep your fingers crossed.

Google Wave News Roundup - Fireworks Edition

Google's Seth Covitz spoke to a tech group focusing on the apps that will run on Google Wave. Sample apps here.

The Power of Platforms

Google Wave: Did You Haiku?

What message did you send the Google Wave team when you signed up for an invite? I talked truthfully about the potential for Wave to be used in the classroom since that's my day job. I can already see how Google Wave could be a benefit to teachers and students.

Did you offer a haiku? Revisit your college essay in an effort to sound worthy? Mention "saving the children"?

Tell us your story in the comments. Share your haiku. Let us know if your invite has come through yet.

Will Google Wave Invites Appear on eBay?

Remember when a Gmail invite was the golden ticket? Folks were selling them on eBay for $199. They were a hot commidity in 2004. I haven't scanned the Wave TOS yet to see if sales are allowed.

Would you sell your ONE invite or guard it with your life?

Did Your Google Invite Arrive Yet?

Has your Google Wave invite arrived yet?

There was a flurry on Twitter last night of invites arriving. Then it returned to the normal flow of tweets about

a) watching the Google Wave Preview Video
b) telling me how to earn $200 a day via Wave*

If you have received your invite what's your impression? Gow long did you wait? Heaven? Rough around the edges? Comment away.

If you are still waiting for the invite then seek comfort from others. It will arrive.

*if Wave mimics Twitter's real time feel and has a solid spam filter this could be trouble for Twitter.

Google Wave News Roundup

Why Google Wave Makes Tim Bray Nervous - The Register

Google, Facebook, Twitter, Microsoft - All Miss the Big Picture - BNET

Predicting the Next Breakthrough Product for Search Engines - eWeek

Wired's Take on Google vs. Facebook

Wired's 6/22/09 piece on Google vs. Facebook lays out a telling tale of the G/F rivalry. In short, Facebook has big dreams of knocking Google down from its search tower. Their theory is that Google's top down, alogorithm based searched model misses the boat: search is about people. Facebook's massive social network brings the people to search.

Check out Facebook's Four Steps to Domination graphic. The company is clearly at level two. You should start using Facebook's Search feature to scour their own data (mostly blocked to Google) as a more personal and engaging way of getting info.

Enter Google Wave. If Wave brings the quality of its other products without forcing users to endure Facebook-like growing pains (privacy concerns, changing TOS) then Facebook may well wish that it had sold out long ago.

Last thought: my previous post talked a bit about Facebook fatigue. It's growing. Wave's arrival is well timed.

Wired: Great Wall of Facebook: The Social Network's Plan to Dominate the Internet — and Keep Google Out

Google Wave: Facebook Killer or Solid Alternative?

Consider recent news from the social networking industry:
-Facebook now top social networking site in U.S. with 70.28 million users
-MySpace lays off thirty percent of its workers to become "more efficient"

I constantly challenge my students to identify the next game changer in any tech arena. When we talk about Facebook no challenger rises to the top. Instead, the conversation turns to "Facebook boredom". While this group remains in the minority more and more of my high school students are letting their Facebook pages go untended. Most have grown weary of the maintenance and Facebook's user-alienating interface changes. Just as they grew tired of only knowing someone through MySpace they are now weary of reading, and posting, status updates like, "I'm making toast."

While Gmail's user base of around 30 million is low compared to Facebook's numbers, it's safe to assume that many gmail accounts will utilize Wave initially. Any new Google product instantly benefits from a solid, existing user base. If the product is good (name Google's failures) then they will stick with it. Wave users will benefit from a product that is not about socializing but communicating. The Wave preview doesn't give an impression of a service that is focused on posting party pics or generating short status updates. The latter may be a side benefit (watch out Twitter).

Google Wave may well incorporate the social organization WIN of Facebook while putting the user, not the community, in control of the communication. Facebook users may well look to Wave to reduce the noise and take control of their online communication in a functional, real time format.

Google Wave Poll #1

Google Wave Preview Invitation - results!

Gina Trapani, editor emeritus at Lifehacker, kindly previews her own Wave invite and answers a fine bank of questions.

My takeaway from her post:

• Wave combines Gmail, Talk and Docs in one browser window.
• Wave is NOT a Facebook killer
• Watching messages as they created, typos and all, is a true home run.

Check out the full Lifehacker post, with screenschots, right here.

Sergey Brin Talks About Google Wave

Check this casual interview with Sergey Brin, Google co-Founder, about Google Wave. Check out the iPhone's new trick during the video.

Best of the Google Wave Preview

Have you watched the 80 minute Google Wave Preview vid yet? No. Then read on and enjoy the good bits with commentary. Remember that GWave is what email would look like today if it hadn't been invented almost 40 years ago.

Live IM - no more "starwarskid is typing" along with the waiting. Text appears live in the Google Wave IM window. Kind of like an actual conversation. Do you prefer the old, stilted method? Then turn the live chat option OFF.


Inline replies - reply in the middle of an email without that awkward hard-return-change-your-font-color method. Easier to read without all the duplicate text.


Live update search results - watch out Twitter


Embed a Wave into a blog - Watch the clip. Now consider how this will change blog comments. If you are on Wave or your blog you want interact live with your visitors instead of using the comment and respond cycle. Live support via Wave anyone?


Smarterware has a full set of these handy clips. Check out their post for a new twist on spell check and creating pubic/shared/private waves.

Email reinvented?

Consider Tim O'Reilly's recent piece on email (Google Wave: What Might Email Look Like If It Were Invented Today?). His insight underscores that Google Wave could be a game changer similar to the way blogging made web content easier to create. Simply put, it's the integration of email into a broader platform that makes the difference. Wave users will not be limited to channel changing between methods of online communication.

I'm curious to see how corporate email will respond to this new formula for email. Will we be stuck in the Outlook email for another gen or two?

Google Wave Snapshot

Here's a snapshot of Google Wave info

• created by two of the Google Maps dev team
• strong emphasis on real time communication
• IM's appear as they are typed - no waiting for someone to hit send
• the real time IM can be disabled if you like the traditional style
• can accept files dragged from the desktop
• reinvention of email
• not created with any business model in mind
  
• in development for two years
• signup for the invite-only beta at wave.google.com
  

How do I get Google Wave?

Get in line to get Google Wave. My students visited wave.google.com to sign up and the site was s l o w in the hours after the preview appeared on YouTube. Google is keeping this a closed, invite only beta which will build buzz similar to the Gmail rollout.

When you visit wave. google.com you will have to make a choice before your request is accepted:




You get the sense that there will be a priority based on the choice that you make.

Then you toss out some fairly non-invasive demographic info followed by the opportunity to share some freefrom text. Haikus are enouraged.

Wave in the news

As of right now there are 1,119 posts in Google News for Google Wave. I'll breeze through them a break down some of the best writeups soon.

Twitter results are full of Wave tweets.

How will Twitter fare in the face of Wave?

Google Wave Preview at Google I/O 2009

Roll to about 7:38 for the live demo to begin.

Google Wave

The Google Wave announcement at the Google I/O conference generated a wave (sorry) deluge of media coverage. My web design class debriefed Google's new offering today and we are intrigued. I'm looking forward to the unboxing when my account goes live.



Google Wave News will serve as a resource for watching Wave as it is released to a broader audience. I'm very curious to see how Wave will stack up against Twitter and, perhaps, steal some Thunder from Facebook. Enjoy and comment.

Thanks..