6/11/2009
Google Wave
Google Wave
In Defence Of The Future

6/11/2009
Google Wave
It‟s been a few months now since I first watched the keynote address where Google unveiled what
looked like being a revolutionary format for exchanging a variety of information. At over 1 hour, the
presentation itself was far too long to watch in one go, but when someone‟s describing a concept
that promises to imagine “What would email look like if it was invented today?”, it‟s unlikely that
anyone will be able to explain it all in 18 minutes: the Presidential Address this is not. But with a
premise as exciting as the one quoted above, the length of the introduction was the only
shortcoming I could see.
Critics say that Google Wave tries to do too much: that it is looking to replace, or (in their eyes)
worse copy, productivity tools in a manner that supposedly betrays a tragic combination of
„arrogance‟ and „naivety‟ on Google‟s part. I‟d argue that, if anything, it isn‟t trying hard enough.
For Wave could be a fledgling replacement for Gmail, Chrome and Google.com, along with every
other web browser, email server, file sharer and app aggregator out there.
This is because searching the web is an arbitrary function. What‟s unique to the individual searching
isn‟t what‟s found, but rather what he or she does with what is found. It‟s this that will really define
our experience of the internet and it‟s this – the end goal – which Google Wave tries to bring closer.
Back in the dark ages of the late 20th Century, email was a perfectly acceptable means to an end: a
method of transfering information from one source to another in, what seemed like, good time. The
internet and email went together because the internet was such a huge source of information
(that‟s why libraries have computers and why a population‟s internet access is indicative of
economic health). As the amount of information online has grown the ability to efficiently share that
information has raced to keep up.
What was originally designed to send the right information, in the right time, is now a lot more
challenging because there's more information and less time. To many, including myself, the mere
notion of email now conjours up feelings of nostalgia and antiquity rather than dynamism and
efficiency.
Today, the web is split into real-time bite-sized units, delivered to us via applications which many of
us use more than 20 times a day. Facebook is one such application, Twitter another. They are
defined as applications because they aggregate content from across the web and then personalise
how that content is delivered according to a user‟s wishes and/or needs.
We should remember that Twitter is practically unusable without the independently-created apps
that offer users a tailored Twitter experience. Content via web apps like Facebook is very specific,
it‟s personal, and the way it‟s presented is therefore highly valuable to the people receiving it. The
basic, impersonal, almost analogue nature of email simply isn‟t up to the job of dealing with this
level of sophistication.
As a replacement to email, Google Wave has come under intense scrutiny but this should be no
surprise as rejection is invariably easier than acceptance. However, just because something is
different, that doesn‟t mean it‟s not an improvement on what‟s come before.¹ What Google Wave
promises is an end to the web browser; it brings us ever closer to a time when turning on a
computer will turn on a world of personalised information feeds much like turning on a smart
phone grants access to information via web-browsing applications. It will give access to information
not just through apps, but through our connections to others: through our inboxes and contacts,
our Twitter feeds and Facebook updates.
To say that this is an exciting move is an understatement.
Google Wave should indicate the dawning of a new era, where corporations, colleagues and
communities alike navigate their way through the internet and then share, annotate & remix what
they find through a single portal. Where clients and customers, friends and family, can share „stuff‟
together: no more attachments to delete, just previews and play with the format & function of Word
docs and the interface of a Digsby or Posterous.2

6/11/2009
Google Wave
Wave is all of these things, but Google isn‟t admitting it and in all honestly that‟s because the user
interface isn‟t quite ready; there is a lot of ground for Wave to cover before it ticks the box marked
„mission accomplished‟.
Ultimately, if there‟s one thing to remember about Wave it‟s that it allows you to grab content from
a Google search (including maps, YouTube videos, web sites, etc...) without exiting the browser or
to navigate to a web page and embed the content in a message. Every individual aspect of that
message can then be commented on, as a conversation between two, three or more people, rather
than each aspect (video, comment, picture, etc...) requiring a different message, as is currently the
case with email services. This single simple adjustment revolutionises information consumption,
sharing, and communication & I encourage you all to get involved.
Author: Lyndon Morant
¹ A quick search for “against new Facebook” on Facebook itself shows just how users always protest
when a service tries to evolve. Of 1,900 results, the top 3 are: People Against The New Facebook
System (237,025 members); 1,000,000 AGAINST THE NEW FACEBOOK LOOK!!! (722,813 members);
MILLIONS AGAINST FACEBOOK‟s NEW LAYOUT & TERMS OF SERVICE (2,468,566 members). Of
course, it was updates to the news feeds that allowed members to find these groups so easily.
2
Digby – streaming together social networking sites into one messenger server (personalised, of
course) http://widget.digsby.com/; Posterous – a means of collaborating and updating multiple
blog sites through one service, all you have to do is send an email to post@posterous.com and your
blog will be created. Check out the author‟s at http://sociablesport.com