An interesting topic that's emerged on the blog the last few weeks is how a new host of Google tools can help editors and perhaps aspects of project management when it comes to publishing.
On Oct. 1, I sampled Google Voice and came away pretty impressed with features like voice mail transcription and easy call recording.
Today, I got a chance to take Google Wave for a spin when a friend invited me to take part in the preview. Based on a few early reports and impressive screen shots, I had high expectations for this latest goffering.
Granted, I only kicked the tires for about 15 minutes with three friends, but my first experience was a mixed bag.
Google Wave has been heralded as what E-mail would look like if it were invented today. In it's current incarnation, Wave looks more like what E-mail would like if it were invented by an AOL chatroom.
Wave is essentially real-time email. You can watch as others compose their thoughts, and the submit a message to the "wave." You can either edit their message, or reply to it. In either case with four very garrulous typists like me and my friends, our wave got out of control fast. Most likely it was because we were excited to try all the features.
It might also be due to the fact that this was a web tool none of us really knew how best to utilize.
Currently, you can embed quite a few things into your Wave responses: Google searches, images, polls, even an interactive sudoku that everyone on a wave can play at once. I imagine the number of these embeddable gadgets is only going to grow.
When E-mail first took hold we all had to learn a few new rules to communicating. Sarcasm had to be approached carefully. We ahd to weigh our words, because although we E-mailed with the casualness of a phone conversation, what we said could be kept forever, printed, shared with the world, etc.
Now with Wave, Google has made a tool that allows you to communicate and collaborate in real time. It's an exciting idea, but will likely only be as useful as the restraint and thoughtfulness of its participants allows it to be.
Google Wave responses are really great. Google searches, images, polls, even an interactive sudoku that everyone on a wave can play at once. I imagine the number of these embeddable gadgets is only going to grow.
Posted by: Glucosamine | November 03, 2009 at 10:01 PM