Unconventional Updates

I recently received my invite in to the Google Wave Preview Program and I’ve been looking around to see what all the buzz is about.

Google Wave is what Google calls the successor to email. It is a web-based application that combines email, instant messaging, social networking and group collaboration techniques. Rather than emails, you send ‘waves’, which sort of make emails look like telegraphs. Waves are interactive, real-time and have a whole range of functions. You can use them to organise events, share photos real-time, brainstorm ideas, collaborate on reports or notes, or even just send a message. If you enable the function, recipients can edit your waves, and you can later on. Its great for when you send that message you really didn’t mean to send, you can just click delete even though its already been sent, or just edit that spelling mistake.

The application is quite customisable, with all the functions nicely grouped together in arrangable panels. Whilst the primary function of Google Wave is to communicate with others who use Google Wave, there is a sort of ‘backwards compatibility’ option to send  messages to email addresses, and likewise receive emails through a username@googlewave.com email address. This will probably boost the early adoption, seeing as the program wouldn’t be much use without this feature as there will only be a small amount of initial users.

Social networking, whilst present, is limited to just a half-hearted user profile and a sort of creative use of Waves. Its good for communicating socially with friends and such with the integration of email, IM and gadgets, however not so good on the actual networking aspect due to the lack of ways to find new friends. The incorporation of gadgets in to Waves is quite clever. For example if you want to send a Wave invitation to a bunch of friends to your party, you can add a weather gadget for the day. Why? Well mainly because you can.

I think that Google Wave would be brilliant if there was one more thing. Ubiquitous use. Google Wave will need to be a universal email replacement rather than an geeky alternative in order for it to live to its full potential. Otherwise it’ll just be used as a regular email client as only a handful of people will have the capabilities to receive and use a Wave. My opinions of Wave are purely speculation as I have hardly been able to actually use it due to my mediocre friends list, and due to the general computer illiteracy we are surrounded by, it may just stay that way. I think Google really does overestimate the general public with all its ‘revolutionary’ apps.

And the bit you’ve been waiting for. I have 25 Google Wave invitations up for grabs. To win them, all you have to do is write in the comments why you think you deserve one. If I deem you worthy, I’ll send you an invite. So you’ll want to post the comment with your Google Account, or write your email address if you don’t mind being picked up by a spambot.

Renegade

 
It looks fairly certain that the one company that has Microsoft scared at the moment is Google. Google has clear dominance over the internet. Something that Bill Gates said there was no future in. Something that every single one of us has come to rely on. I would hazard a guess to say that most of you spend more time in your web browser than you do running applications, and its that area of computing that Microsoft are very late contenders to. Google were the first to make the internet easily accessible. In a way they could be attributed to its success, Google revolutionised the search engine, allowing the average dial-up user to look up what they liked without knowing the exact URL. Since then, Google has grown from a couple of programmers to a multi-billion dollar corporation and now has the Microsoft crosshairs pointed right at them.

Google has done what Apple do. Taken what's already there and made it cleaner and user-friendly. However Google has done two things differently, they don’t charge ridiculous amounts of money and they don’t restrict their software to death. Almost all their software is open source, and their web applications are nearly all free, its great for developers, enthusiasts and casual users alike.

The problem for Microsoft is that everyone knows Google. The word Google has almost become synonymous with the World Wide Web. The term ‘googling’ is part of everyday language. And it doesn’t matter how good Bing is, people are going to stick with what they know. For most people its all they know. But Microsoft are persistent, they recently announced that they will be making a free version of Microsoft Office 2010 available for use through the web browser. The advantage of this would be the increase in collaboration and also the fact a user will be able to access it from anywhere and on any OS, as long as the plug-in is compatible. Direct competition towards Google’s web applications such as Google Docs.

I don’t know how this will take off. We have here two very well known and recognisable services. Microsoft Office, today’s industry standard. Microsoft blew Lotus and WordPerfect out of the picture a long time ago, now Office is the only mainstream closed source Office suite still in the running for Windows. And then we have Google, characterised by large friendly childlike letters instantly recognisable to anyone who’s used a computer. Who is the public going to flock to? Only time will tell.

I personally think that Office will do well with those unwilling to pay for an upgrade. The concept of an Office suite in a web browser is interesting, but I like to keep my applications offline, just because of the unpredictability and the limitations of the internet. But I’ll give it a go, because I’m stingy like that.

Renegade

(Sandmonkey will be back soon for those missing him)