Google Wave, initial thoughts

So our team has been playing around with Google Wave over the last week since being invited to the preview. Technology wise it is quite remarkable, the Google developers have created a life-like conversation application that goes way beyond the standard messenger or email format. However through lack of documentation things can get confusing fast and also I am not convinced (yet) that the system is anywhere near ready. The writers of lifehacker.com have made the first attempt at clarity however with their excellent book completewaveguide.com and I recommend reading that before you start.

Time will tell if this is a workable solution, it may just be that Google has over-complicated something that didn’t need fixing. Replacing email is a big task and I am not sure in it’s current form Google Wave offers an alternative. It is entirely possible that the conversation style will make it hard to follow which will make the tool unproductive and a non-starter. They also have to convince everyone to have a Wave account to communicate and this is something that could seriously damage the rate of adoption. You can’t, after all, teach old dogs new tricks!

Google Chrome OS – Should we believe the hype?

‘They even had it on the news
Don’t believe the hype…’ Public Enemy

Hang on a minute, everyone seems to be talking like Google Chrome OS is going to change the world. Surely it would be better to wait until more than a handful of people have seen or indeed used it before we label it a major player? Although I anticipate many people will be early adopters of a suspected very long beta program there will be limitations and in reality it could take years for this product to mature.

In short, Google don’t walk on water, I’d prefer to see and experience Google Chrome OS in action before the hype. However if they make it Open Source that should be applauded.

Let’s see what happens….