Riding the Google Wave

As a Southern California native, I’m always drawn to the beach. So, when I started hearing all the buzz about Google’s latest creation, Google Wave, I was already on board. 

I have come to learn that there is actually no beach involved in the Wave, but it does present some amazing new challenges and thrills for businesses.

Currently Google Wave is in preview mode and select people who registered in advance on Google’s site are receiving invitations. I just received mine last week so I thought I’d give you my early thoughts.

Hang 10!

• Have collaborative conversations going on for your entire team or select people
• Translate international conversations (wow!)
• Drag in projects, files, Google searches, surveys into 1 wave where everyone can comment, make edits, add to projects
• Playback mode allows anyone to catch-up on the entire Wave even if they joined ½ way through the conversation
• Archive waves to return to later
• Open Source means developers will be creating amazing tools to make it even better
• Opportunities for companies to create branded applications to engage their brand in the conversation

Wipe Out!

• There is a learning curve and some won’t want to adopt new technologies
• It is only as good as the people using it
• Can be overwhelming at first
• Buggy-it is brand new and the kinks are still being discovered
• Only a limited number of users have it now, so you’ll have to spend some time searching for folks to try it out with

Google Wave is being called a game-changer and I can see that there is a lot of substance to support the hype. Once everyone has an invitation to the party, I will be eager to see how quick people are to adopt.

Until then, see you at the beach!