The Enterprise Implications of Google Wave

By Rich Manalang • June 1st, 2009 • 24 Comments

Five minutes after I posted my Google Wave analysis, I ran into Dion Hinchcliffe’s excellent analysis of Google Wave.  A must read for Enterprise 2.0 folks.

enterprise_waves

This is exactly what I’m envisioning happening with Google Wave in the enterprise.  It will become the “glue code” for the user experience.  It won’t replace existing back-end apps, but provide a much cleaner, nicer, and more productive interface for interacting with them.  The biggest problem most enterprise apps pose is the lack of focus on the user experience.  Google Wave provides a framework for improving that experience.


Possibly Related Posts

  • http://oracle-base.com oraclebase

    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…

  • http://theappslab.com Jake

    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.

  • joel garry

    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.

  • http://theappslab.com Jake

    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.

  • http://oracle-base.com/ oraclebase

    Hi.

    I’ve already given my first impressions on Rich’s original blog, so I won’t repeat myself.

    I have been wondering if wave could end up being the new friendfeed. My biggest challenge in terms of a Web 2.0 wannabe is actually keeping an eye on everything. Friendfeed helps, but it’s not the answer. With the right extensions, wave could merge my emails, RSS, social networks and microblogs into a single consistent stream? You never know.

    I know it’s a bit of a trivial use, but maybe that will attract the masses more than the business aspects of collaboration…

    Cheers

    Tim…

    This comment was originally posted on Oracle AppsLab

  • http://twitter.com/arex arex

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

  • http://theappslab.com Jake

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

  • http://theappslab.com/ Jake

    Actually, those two were noticeably absent from the demo. They showed how Wave can interact with a blog, but not how it could aggregate information. They also didn’t cover how contacts got into Wave.

    My guess is to do FriendFeed style aggregation would be possible via a robot, which I’m sure someone will build very early. Same thing for social network contact management. The APIs on those systems would make that pretty attractive as a starting point for developers.

    The consumer waves will be built quickly, but just as quickly, that well will run dry b/c there just aren’t that many out there to build. This is why Rich and I see more promise for enterprises, leading to an ecosystem of enterprise waves built to support enterprise processes.

    This comment was originally posted on Oracle AppsLab

  • http://twitter.com/CrystalConsult Brian Roberts

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

  • http://theappslab.com Jake

    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.

  • Brian

    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!

  • http://theappslab.com Jake

    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.

  • Brian

    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!

  • http://theappslab.com Jake

    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.

  • Pingback: Empathy as Design Value | Oracle