Member Avatar for InsightsDigital

I read online that Google Wave is like the next best thing since wonder bread. I do know that only 100,000 invites were sent. So what do you think if you were one of the lucky ones? I have seen the video on youtube but other than that, I still cant judge.

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There was a lot of genuine excitement in 2009 about what Google Wave aimed to do, and the reactions in this thread reflect that — asked the big question, hedged his bets, scored an early account, and saw potential for SMB collaboration. The important follow-up, now that this thread is being read years later, is what actually happened and what lessons are still useful.

What Wave brought to the table was a single, real‑time space for conversations and co‑authored documents: simultaneous editing using operational transformation, a “playback” of edits, threaded shared objects called waves, and extensibility via gadgets and automated “robots.” Those ideas proved influential even if the product itself did not become mainstream. For a concise technical and historical summary, see Google Wave — Wikipedia.

Why it didn’t replace email or social platforms: limited adoption, a steep learning curve, and unclear everyday use cases are commonly cited. Google stopped active development in 2010 and later contributed the project to the Apache incubator; the open-source follow-up saw only limited traction (see Apache Wave — Wikipedia). That sequence explains why invites and the early preview excitement didn’t translate into a long-lived consumer product.

For teams still after Wave-like capabilities today, practical choices are: use Google Docs or Microsoft 365 for robust real‑time co‑editing and version history; Etherpad (or similar) for lightweight open‑source realtime pads; and Slack/Teams with bots for the conversational + automation side that robots once targeted. The core takeaway: Wave’s ideas survived even if the brand did not — evaluate tools by their workflow fit (real‑time editing, persistent threads, automation) rather than by hype.

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Member Avatar for MktgRob

I read online that Google Wave is like the next best thing since wonder bread. I do know that only 100,000 invites were sent. So what do you think if you were one of the lucky ones? I have seen the video on youtube but other than that, I still cant judge.

When it was in the early stages of beta you could go view the way it would look and feel but I am waiting for the real opp to play with it before passing judgement. My feeling is it might eventually compete with FB and/or twitter on some level but that is just a less-than-educated guess.

Member Avatar for Kruptein

Woohoow I received my test-account today =D
I can use the google wave preview version now

Edited by Kruptein because: n/a
Member Avatar for InsightsDigital

Let us know how Google Wave is. Do keep us posted. Thanks

Member Avatar for jay 11

Looking forward to getting my hands on it as well. A co-worker of mine has an account and she showed me some of its features. From what I saw, I recon it will be very well adopted. Some are describing it as "email on steroids." I can see a lot of small-medium size businesses dropping their current collaboration software and hoping on the Wave instead. Not so sure it will be so well received by the general public. At least not at first...

Edited by jay 11 because: fixed typo
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