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?