The AppsLab

It'd be nice if it could also function as an email client itself. Not everyone I know will be waving and I'll still need to email about. This would be a functional way of also alerting recipients of emails received from Google Wave users about Google Waves existence and offering them a way of moving to it!

I'm sure there will (eventually) be email integrations and full clients built around the Wave API. I'm wondering lately if the release has taken away critical momentum for the platform though. Or maybe I'm not part of the cool waves; seems pretty nigh useless right now. The API and the open source version will be critical pieces; I suppose federation will be key too. They say that's coming soon.

I found the potential implications of this fascinating. As with any other new technology, there's going to be a learning curve.

Yeah, having used the preview version a bit, it is a new paradigm in UI as well, which will be tough. I expect that developers will build Wave clients to make it fit the standard email/inbox interface to help ease the transition.

Communication convergence... I wonder if the open sourced wave server tech can do search? If not, maybe all our data still belongs to Google.

Obviously this is speculation, but I think it must. Otherwise, where's the value to anyone who wants to use Wave for secured communications?

This makes me want to throw any number of 2 inch thick books at somebodies head.

All I can think of is some stupid portal dashboard demo I worked on which took forever to load each little bit. "Glue code" indeed.

Why am I surprised :) Time will tell. Google has invested heavily in Wave, so I'm guessing they're committed to it. Did you watch the demo? I felt the same way about clutter when I saw the screenshot (before watching the demo).

Taming that mess of portlets won't be hard, but I don't think it's necessarily putting their best foot forward to show that image, especially since they're known for a Spartan interface.

Hi.

I watched the 1:20 Google I/O session on youtube. First, let me say I was very impressed by the idea and the technology, but I have some reservations:

- Are people ready for a product like Wave? Many people are struggling to cope with basic Web 2.0 concepts and Wave takes it a step further. Not sure how it will be perceived by the non-geeks in the near future.

- It is not just a beta in the Google sense of the word. It looks less than an alpha to me. I think there is a long way to go before I would commit to using the product. During the demo there were bugs, page refreshes required and functional omissions.

- I wonder what network impact of wave will be. In a large company with constant updates between multiple wave subscribers. Is this going to be an issue?

Fast forward 6 months and I hope all my doubts are unfounded. I can't wait to have an interface like wave. :)

Cheers

Tim...

I had the same reaction, i.e. it's going to need a dumbing-down for the average user to get comfortable. That's not a problem, just an observation.

After working with OpenSocial, we already know the code will be a bit iffy. Still, the extension framework is the key part. As long as it's stable, we can build robots and gadgets and get a feel for how it works.

I see a lot of promise right now. But again, no one has code in hand yet.