What went wrong with Google Wave
Like thousands of people like me a few weeks ago I got my Google Wave invite, I logged in clicked about, played with a few Waves, had some conversations and signed out.
Overall I was a combination of slightly bermused, impressed by the technology bowled over by the real-time goodness and the slick UI, but fundamentally unsure of what I was supposed to use Google Wave for.
But what actually went wrong here? I’ve got a theory and it’s not what you might expect – valid though those criticisms are. Google Wave went wrong, not because of what it is, but because it didn’t harness any viral power:
- Invites are not sent fast enough
- Wave is closed
- Wave has no pointers
Google Wave is first first and foremost a communications technology, which means for people to really see the benefits they need to be communicating with people they know.
When you join Google Wave you receive 8 invites, when you’re through those you get another 12. But when you send the invite they don’t arrive for several days. Meaning you’ve got practically no-one of significance to communicate with when you’re first into it*.
So your first experience of Wave is with strangers.
The second problem with Wave is that you don’t know when you’ve got an unread Wave. You signed in first time around, played around a bit with a few people you vaguely know online, and sign out. If someone now communicates with you whilst you’re signed out you’re not informed.
No email, no RSS feed, no Tweet, nada.
So you don’t sign in and respond and you don’t slowly fall away from being a Wave user.
The final thing which they got wrong is that there are no easy to follow pointers to get your started, clues for intentional uses, a quick “first action”.
When people first use a technology they are in a state of mild stress, in short they don’t want to publicly demonstrate that they don’t know what they’re doing and therefore look stupid. So they want something easy to do, figuring out the complex stuff afterwards. This is as true of techie geeks as it is of our non-techie friends.
Google Wave doesn’t supply these pointers.
What’s important about what I’ve said here is that all of this is entirely fixable, and there are plenty more people who desperately want to try out Google Wave. With any luck the feedback from the 2nd and 3rd round of adopters will be a lot more positive!
* I totally acknowledge that there maybe good technical scalability reasons for this, but it doesn’t change the affect.
November 4th, 2009 at 10:29
Very interesting points. I agree most of all with your pointers arguement. I am not sure how to reply in the way that I want to — there seem to be two ways to do it: A) chat-like and B) staggered, but I can never EVER get Wave to reply in the way I want it to. Also, if I create a staggered reply, there’s no way to delete it. ??? What the heck? And I’m not sure how to edit something someone has started already. And what the heck is a ping for? Many questions. Many questions. =)
November 4th, 2009 at 10:37
I totally agreed. I end up with a range of staggered replies (because there’s an easy keyboard short-cut to post these replies and I want to use it like I’m using IM), But, the screen quickly becomes unusable. This sort of thing will hopefully get tidied up those – it is a beta!!
November 4th, 2009 at 15:09
I usually work with web-based applications like http://www.showdocument.com
I use it for sharing my designs and documents with partners and clients,
but i guess it can used for other purposes too. If you’re looking for a free solution you should check it out.
- Laura W.
November 4th, 2009 at 20:19
Hi Matt
For me Wave is far too noisy – editing other peoples posts (as they are writing it) makes the whole thing a bit of a mess and posts become intermixed.
Plus i really don’t want people to see my text as i type it – they will see all my typos
Maybe this is one of those things that just click with me one day – i hope so, because for all my whinging it does excite me.
Nick L.
November 4th, 2009 at 20:31
I guess I see many of those elements as being fixable UI issues (although I do hate the idea that people can see my typing!)
Wave me me is a bit like standing in a room full of people talking, but instead of just hearing the person you’re talking to directly, you’re hearing everyone who might sound like they are saying something you’re interested in.
My guess is that the reason Google is staggering the invites is so that they get fresh faces when they learn feedback such as this. The unfortunately side-effect is that people have few of the folks they normally communicate with when they are on the system…
November 4th, 2009 at 20:46
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November 5th, 2009 at 19:55
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November 13th, 2009 at 02:17
Read this
completewaveguide.com
Try the product again. Yes I would kill for a wave invite too. Consider yourself fortunate as someone on the outside waiting to get in.