I’ve been using Google Wave for a few weeks now.    In case you somehow haven’t heard of Google Wave before, here is a description from the website:

Google Wave is an online tool for real-time communication and collaboration. A wave can be both a conversation and a document where people can discuss and work together using richly formatted text, photos, videos, maps, and more.

In simple terms, I see it as a dynamic message board.  It’s an interesting idea, but I haven’t been hooked on it yet.   It doesn’t feel conducive for everyday use.  I definitely do not see it replacing email or IMing anytime soon, like some suggest will happen. Seems more for specific group projects or interest groups.

 

Even then, you have to be able to wrap your head around the concept and features in order to be able to use it and I think the general public might be turned off to it before they get past the learning curve.

One of the hardest things at first is that you don’t have any friends when you first join.   Two things to help:

 

1) When you join Google Wave, you should get a wave in your inbox from Google that allows you to invite some friends.

 

2) In the search box, type “with: public” without quotes so you can browse and join public waves.    (see below)

 

 

I just got a bunch of invites and sent it out to a few people here at EMG.   Maybe I’ll have a change of heart once I start using it in a business setting.