Yet Another Prediction Come True: Google Wave

I cannot begin to tell you how excited I was when I heard about the development of Google Wave.  What is it?  Well, basically it's like gmail and instant chat had a baby... And the godmom was Microsoft Word.  It combines the instant access of chat to the conversation/large archive system that makes gmail so revolutionary, with added functionality similar to editing and image in Word (such as adding charts, images, and ... video? Oh yah, it does that!  In fact, you can even call each other using an added app, and the wave will save not only the audio recording of your conversation but also a TRANSCIPTION).

Sorry.  Having a bit of a nerd-gasm.  Let's try to stay calm, shall we?

Basically, this is the interactive technology the internet has been promising since that first "LO" in Oct '69.  (Or, at the very least, the realization of technology I predicted 15+ years ago.  Like Adobe Bridge.  And Gmail.) Like Gmail was so many years ago, it's still in beta and available only through invites, and with good reason (the program is finicky, missing a lot of functionality, and isn't terribly user friendly at the moment), yet the brilliance still shines clearly through.  The sheer number of "invite me!" comments on any blog entry I've found will attest to the usefulness of instant-access, fully recoverably group messages...

And then I started to find the apps.  (You can play ZORK!  ALL OF THEM!)

The base program is uber-simple, basically instant chat that you can log into when the other users are off line, with the ability to drop in maps or "yes/no" buttons.  However, with the ever increasing number of apps available from google, other companies, and even private individuals, this simple framework will clearly not last long.  There are some very serious issues with this beta program, which I'm sure will be addressed in coming updates, but for now here are some of my complaints:

1) Can't make tables.  (I LIKE CHARTS. I found a flowchart app that's awesome, but why can't I make a simple html table?  Even Word let's me do that!)

2) Can't easily include an image of your choice, either from your computer or the internet. (Unlike blogger, there's no "add picture" button - why not?  There are some basic photo apps already available, but I want the simple, useful functionality of an "add my picture" button - and why not?)

3) Can't copy entire conversations to a new wave, only individual replies. (This makes me MENTAL!  WTH NOT??)

4) The program has both a top, drop down nav system AND a side bar system based on Gmail.  Whaaa?  It works quite well once you get used to it, actually, but it is definitely not going to be easily adopted by the average luser.

5) You cannot edit and comment within one main document - rather, your wave becomes a long list of replies to replies. (I dunno, maybe I just haven't worked this out yet, but so far I haven't figured something out - this means you can't edit/markup/comment on a "document-style" main chunk of information, like you can with Word, but instead must break a project up into numerous tiny pieces in order to maintain the usability.)

6) The 'comment' style addition of new sections is a great idea, much like adding a sticky note to a document, and makes it very easy to keep track of who said what BUT unlike google talk the icon and name representing each user is not listed in a section separate to the content: that is, there is no indent between icon and info, so your content ends up being moved around based on the length of the name, etc, and the only way to fix this is to add extra lines at the top of each comment... useless.  Why not add an indent code like google talk?)

7) Currently, apps are added one of two ways depending on the type of app being added: a bot is added as a contact, and a physical app (such as a map or chart) is dropped in using a web address.  HUGE issues with this system, not the least of which is figuring out how both work.  Adding a bot is easy using the new system, though slightly time consuming, but it is frustratingly added to the same contact list as all your friends/colleagues you are trying to Wave with... This means wading through dozens of apps (I had 15 in my first 10minutes using wave) trying to find the person who actually needs the information. There clearly need to be two lists to keep these options separate.  However, this was definitely the less frustrating option as adding something like my flowchart quickly proved to be ridiculously aggravating.

First, you can't copy and paste app info, it resets back to blank.  Then, you go to re-add the app later in the wave or to a different one and realize you had no way to save the address for it, no databank of "previously used apps" - the only ones you can drop back in easily are the two basic ones supplied by google.  As a result, you have to go hunt down the original address (and hope you pasted it in the original wave beneath the app!).  Most of the apps also seem to be as bare bones as the Wave interface itself, which is about as visually stimulating as a website in 1994, which is fine if they work, but most of the apps I've encountered have had small hiccups (the base length of the flowchart, for instance, is not large enough to show you all the options for labels) or go offline altogether (being hosted separately from the main program, they go offline whenever a developer decides, meaning they disappear entirely from your wave, leaving a gaping hole!).

8) LABELS.  Seriously.  You destroyed the folder system with your awesome "everything is in one big pile and you just find the ones you want through a preset search we calls labels" system.  Then you thought, "hey, we developed a brand new universe changing program that would be perfect for labels... but we won't include them."  Seriously?  I know they must be coming but... man, is this this hard to navigate without them!
[edit: there is a folder function, which operates much like labels on blogspot.  It's not super great, but I'm retracting my complaint.  Instead, I'm adding two more!

8a) PERMISSIONS. I can't figure out how to control access to certain pieces of information - some apps will allow you admin privileges over their content, but that's the closest I've managed.  This is an obvious issue.

8b) DELETING.  So far, I have made roughly 10 waves.  Of them, 3 have accidentally included people I didn't want to include.  Luckily, at first it was friends with unusual names that I didn't recognize - thinking they were app bots, I added them only to be surprised.  Fine, right?  Except that you can't remove people from a wave.  You also cannot delete a wave - there is a trash box, but it's a folder like any other (much like the spam or trash folders on gmail, except without the 'delete permanently' option).  This doesn't seem like much of a problem until you realize I now have 6 wacko test waves busy interacting with bots from within my trashcan...  One of which has accidentally contacted a pseudo-enemy of mine!  That's right, I had a contact in my gmail from a previous job that was imported to wave - while I abhor the person, and the project we did together so many years ago, I am now pals with them on wave.  While attempting to delete them from my contacts list, I accidentally added them to a wave!  Now the poor person, who hasn't heard from me in over 3 years, has a wave in their inbox that says "Hi! I love wave, look I can play zork!"  More confusingly, it doesn't even have the Zork app added.  Double fail.  With no way to delete the wave or remove the user, I've hidden it -and my shame- at the bottom of my trash bin and will attempt to forget it.  BOOOOOO WAVE! Way to embarass the crap out of me!!]


Again, all of these are problems which will clearly be corrected in the next year or so, but I felt like adding my 2 cents.  For early adopters, this is not "beta" in the way gmail was - don't bother adding Wave quite yet unless you don't plan on using it for anything actually important.  However, if you feel like refreshing your knowledge of Zork3, have fun!