So you have this fancy new product and you figure the best way to promote it is to invite 4000 developers to your headquaters, record the whole 90 minute event, and post it to Youtube for the world to see and hope, well know, that it will go viral and be talked about all over the world. You pitch it as “if email was built today, what would it look like” and all of a sudden everyone is listening, and why not, look who you are.
Yep, that’s Google and Google Wave. But where has it gone? It was only a few months ago that every man and his dog that was on the net was begging and pleading for an invite and it was Top 10 in Twitter Trends with no problem at all. It was the new cool communication tool that was a must have, and we all couldn’t wait to get our hands on it. How fickle or quick things change. It has been at least 3 weeks since I have seen anyone reach out for an invite, in fact I tried giving my 7 left away and had no takers.
It seems that Google Wave was either the best viral marketing of a new freeware software communication tool of all time or that Google have actually got this one wrong. To be fair I just think there timing is off. I was totally sold after watching the movie length episode of all Google Wave tricks and treats and what else they have planned for the “new email”. How could you not be jumping over yourself to get your hands on it.
So where has it gone wrong. Firstly, it is very obvious that you need a large network to get the full power of Google Wave. With the limited (understandablle as it’s in Beta) amount of people on it, this makes it a glorified IM platform. Most importantly has Google jumped the gun on Google Wave?
Twitter is still the shiny new toy that we are all addicted to. It’s simple, quick and easy and everyone is on it. There are no 100 page instruction manuals needed, and the added tools that allow you to track a wide range of facets make it the “in thing” Its that addictive that Michael Specht just passed 30,000 tweets. How many waves would that equate to and how many people would you need to have on there to do that?
I don’t doubt that Google Wave will have its place moving forward and will prove to be a great communication tool. But should Google have waited 6-12 months until Twitter and Facebook start becoming a bit stale?
I think sometimes that the technically/social media savvy are trying to get too many people to run before they have even learnt to walk. Lots of people still don’t even use even a tenth of the technology that is out there yet seemingly every day there is a new application, bit of software or widget that comes along for the world to try.
I think it’s all moving a bit too fast.
Why not get the majority up to speed with the basics before you launch a bit of kit that only those in the industry plus the geeks and the nerds will give a go? One has to remember that vaste swathes of the planet’s population aren’t driven every day by what the latest technological advancement for the web is. They have more important things to worry about. Some of them aren’t even on the web, yet, again, almost every day you read about how you need to keep up or you will miss out. Well maybe you will, but people move at their own pace and always have. For big corporates and any organisation serious about keeping ahead of the game fine, they need to know, but Google Wave just wasn;t important enough. It was too much too soon. My own thought as a 4/10 technically savvy individual was it was of no interest to me whatsoever. And many people score less than me on the savvy scale.
I think the whole point about Google are doing with Wave is very much developing it in public. It was never launched as a finished proposition and I don’t think even the developers themselves know where it is going to go. I think it’s fantastic that they have done this way as it was always likely to leave them open to exactly this type of criticism. Maybe it will ultimately fail but I think it’s ridiculous to call it a failure at this point. Lets just wait and see!
In terms of the comment above from Alconcalcia. I would recommend he studies the classic technology adoption curve http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technology_adoption_lifecycle
If innovation goes at the speed of the early and late majority then there is no innovation, it’s as simple as that. Early adopters always drive what the majority will do several years later and that’s been proven time and time again
Thanks Matt. I don’t think it’s a total failure at this stage, but the gloss of it has certainly worn off. It will be back I don’t doubt that, but the craze and talk about it at the time of launch was perhaps a bit premature from both sides, Google and ours.
I really hope it lives up to everything I saw in the video, it really does look quite amazing. Just so many other things at the moment stealing the limelight. But it’s Google, they won’t let it stand still for long.
Interesting thoughts in your post. Have you considered the differences between google wave and other social platforms such as twitter?
I’d suggest that a major difference is that twitter is public by default where google wave is private. Twitter is a public conversation, information sharing tool. Perhaps google wave is more about internal workflow efficiency in business.
When working on projects in a team or collaborating with others, I always work with a wave. It’s an awesome way to collaborate from multiple locations and even better allows for more effective and efficient collaboration when you are in the same physical space as others you are working with.
At the Deloitte google wave meet-up people from different industries and businesses spoke about different applications of wave and how they had been using it. A great application was minutes in meetings; very often in large meetings there is one person whose job it is to take minutes (to be distributed after the meeting) at the same time most other people in the room will be taking notes. Now consider if everybody in the room was on a wave. The most obvious benefit is that the person whose responsibility it was to take minutes, their role has become redundant, a potential cost saving or better, time saving for that individual. During the meeting each person contributes to the wave, taking notes collaboratively. Minutes are actually produced live as the meeting happens- they are dynamic and content rich given they are created with input from multiple people. That is one pretty awesome application of wave, I am sure there are others. Collaborative brainstorming is what I would use it for most.
Perhaps the reason it’s become difficult to give google wave invitations away is because most twitter users have them by now? Have you tried giving them away on facebook or linkedin or physically in workplaces?
I’d also say that perhaps the reason we haven’t heard as much about it as twitter, facebook and other social platforms is because it’s being used as a private enterprise tool? I don’t often see articles about Yammer either; and I think it’s safe to say that the efficiency and effectiveness benefits for businesses on Yammer are pretty clear.
Thanks Joanne for your comment.
Google Wave is an interesting one that’s for sure. I personally love it and think it will certainly have a place in everyones online communication tool kit in the future. Google have pitched it as “if email was built today what would it look like”? I can certainly see it taking over Outlook and other email platforms. But for now it a waiting game to see exactly where it will fit in.
I don’t necessarily think that comparing Google Wave to Twitter is fair. Twitter is micro-blogging at its finest. Its growth is rapid and impact it has had is nothing short of spectacular. It has been integrated into many other sites and now Google are using it for real time search, hardly what any other tool can lay claim to. Microsoft are now looking at partnering with a social media partner for Outlook to increase interaction, something to compete with Google Wave eventually.
Google Wave is certainly a great collaboration tool, but it is not a pure business tool and any company that uses it for collaboration of any kind needs to be very careful that the Wave is in fact “private”. No doubt that one company will slip with this one day soon and everyone will cease using it in this way.