Google Wave, the Aftermath

By Rich Manalang • October 5th, 2009 • 31 Comments

When I first saw Google Wave, it was like experiencing a messiah. For a web/tech geek, @larsras‘ and @twephanie‘s 80+ min demo was a spiritual affair that I’ll probably remember for the rest of my life [in software].  I even spread the love on this blog.

Google Wave

After Google I/O (where Google Wave had it’s coming out party), I got a chance to kick the tires in the Google Wave sandbox.  Boy was that rough — it should have been called a “wave pool” instead of a sandbox.  The product was unusable after 5-10 minutes of use.  With that said, I was cool with it because the Google engineers behind it are rock stars and it’ll get cleaned up… and hell, it was basically alphaware.

Fast forward to last week when Google opened up Wave to ~100k users.  I thought great… it’s almost ready and most issues should be ironed out by now.  Hmmm… after using it for a week, I’d say it’s got a long way to go.  Yes, most of the bugs I’ve seen in the past are gone.  However, there are still several things that make this product very unusable as an email alternative.  First of all, whenever I use it, it spikes my browser’s memory usage by about 300-500mb on top of what was already there.  So, it’s not unlikely to have Safari or Chrome (on OS X Snow Leopard) consuming ~1gb of memory.  After using Google Wave, I had to cycle my browser just to free up the memory.  Ok… so the browsers have to improve because of Google Wave… that’s a good thing.  Nothing pushes innovation faster than an innovative product that relies on it, right?

Aside from technical issues, Google Wave’s largest hurdle is to convince people that this platform really is better.  I get that Google released Wave to hackers early to crowdsource the innovation that could help propel its use.  However, it’s going to be a while before most common folks really “get it.”  It’s also going to require some innovative applications (extensions, robots, etc) and use patterns to push it forward.  Right now, the general consensus among my circle of wave friends is that they “don’t get it.”

With that said, I’m confident that Google will pull it off.  Not very many companies can do it, but they can.  Everything gets reinvented at some point and email is a prime target.  So, I’m sure that in another few months, my current feelings toward Wave will be different.  In the meantime, if you happen to get a Wave invite, send me a wave.


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  • http://empoprise-bi.blogspot.com/ John E. Bredehoft (Empoprises)

    At this point, my biggest issue with Google Wave is that while it offers a way for predetermined groups of people to collaborate, it doesn't seem suited for collaboration on the fly with a previously disconnected group of people. And even for predetermined groups of people, I'm not sure what advantages Google Wave offers, other than the ability to use your Google account.

  • http://blog.rayapps.com/ Raimonds

    “spikes my browser’s memory usage by about 300-500k” – you probably wanted to say 300-500MB? :)

  • http://theappslab.com manalang

    Woops… yes… MB

  • http://theappslab.com manalang

    It will be awhile until useful patterns emerge that are more efficient than what we have now. We'll just have to wait and see.

  • Chris

    For me the most obvious use is for a group of developers or product managers, i.e. INSIDE a corporate firewall. I suppose there will be a Facebook-like version (or perhaps a Facebook-embedded version) as well.

  • http://theappslab.com Jake

    Yeah, if you read our original coverage, Rich and I both expect Wave to have a bigger impact on communication inside the firewall b/c there are so many more processes to automate. Facebook already has chat and email, so it makes sense for them to do something similar. The assumption is that Paul Buchheit from FriendFeed who's credited with designing GMail, is probably redesigning FB email, which is a hot mess. Wouldn't surprise me to see something game-changing from them, maybe more focused than Wave.

  • http://twitter.com/ultan ultmeistergeneral

    On the subject of world domination, any plans to use Facebook Connect to spread the appslab word globally? http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2353640,00…

  • http://theappslab.com Jake

    No plans, but I suppose if enough people ask, maybe. The Facebook Connect integration comes through Disqus, which only applies to comments. The blog itself isn't FB Connect-enabled, so I'd have to do that independently, which would further complicate matters by adding *another* FB Connect login. Bit confusing.

    Or maybe I'm overcomplicating it. What's wrong with Google Translate :)

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  • http://twitter.com/JimLittlefield Jim Littlefield

    Hi Rich, Thanks for the update on Google Wave. Sounds like a game changer but since it might be a while before I get my hands on it, I'll keep checking back. -Jim

  • http://theappslab.com manalang

    Hi Jim. Yeah, it'll be a while before mass adoption happens, but as with many Google products, this will have quite a bit of momentum in the next few years.

  • http://twitter.com/JimLittlefield Jim Littlefield

    Hi Rich, Thanks for the update on Google Wave. Sounds like a game changer but since it might be a while before I get my hands on it, I'll keep checking back. -Jim

  • http://theappslab.com manalang

    Hi Jim. Yeah, it'll be a while before mass adoption happens, but as with many Google products, this will have quite a bit of momentum in the next few years.