Google Wave Feels Like a Chat Client, But is it?

Invite received. Actions limited by low number of connections.

Google Wave - my first conversation. How do you end a conversation?

I don’t know how many people have received Google Wave invites. In September, we were told 100,000 users would be invited to participate. I opened my Gmail account last weekend to find my invitation awaiting my attention and with great excitement I clicked through to start my Google Wave experience. I am ready to change the way I communicate online. There’s only one problem: with so few early adopters invited to participate I don’t have anyone to communicate with.

That being said, I’ve had my first valuable interaction on Google Wave and feel confident in telling you what I think about my initial experience.

Obviously, Google Wave is in experimentation

I don’t need a chart this week to tell you that Google Wave is in the experimentation phase of its life cycle. I’ve watched a ton of videos about using Google Wave and I think their biggest challenge is going to be differentiating the functionality of Wave from that of a chat client like Google Chat or a social media status update channel like Twitter. It feels like a chat. It looks like chat. It smells like a chat. So, it must be a chat, right? I don’t think it’s supposed to feel like a chat client and therein lies my concern.

The biggest opportunity underneath Google Wave is the ability to carry on a curated conversation of value with a wide array of participants. In fact, a conversation may start out as relevant to only two people, but add value to 1,000. That’s the power of Google Wave.

I think those of you that think Twitter is valuable need to spend some time investigating Google Wave.

Unbelievable potential: Twitter watch out

The future possibilities for an open source platform like Google Wave is literally limitless. Create a conversation, create a public time-line and publish your conversations – bingo – you’ve got Twitter. People have created Google Wave Gadgets (little plug-ins) that do all sorts of things like collaborate on a Sudoku puzzle with one of your contacts or insert videos and documents into your conversation. It’s amazingly powerful. If you can dream it. You can do it.

From a content perspective, there are already WordPress plug-ins that could replace comment aggregators like Disqus on your blog. Simply, add the plug-in to your WordPress install and anyone with a Google Wave account can comment. No login required.

While the channel evolves (it is buggy) experimenting with the wide variety of potential content creation concepts is a must. Take time to explore the possibilities, so when it’s open to the public you’re already ahead of the curve.

Huge potential in experimentation phase

Don't get de-focused with Google Wave, but make sure you spend time experimenting on the new channel

Right now, and I do mean right now, you need to go to Google Wave and sign up for a beta account invitation. As soon as you have the opportunity to experiment with Wave, I suggest you do it. Don’t get de-focused, but once a week I recommend you try and use Wave to communicate. Try and add a Google Gadget (here’s a quick list of ones to try). Google Wave isn’t easy to get used to, but it has huge potential and a lot of muscle behind it, you don’t want to be caught off guard in the escalation phase.

Here’s the one problem with the way Google’s introduced me to Wave: I don’t have enough connections to actually experience the ‘power’ of Google Wave. Right now, I only know two other people in the whole world who have access to Wave. It would be great if they had given us the ability to invite 8 people who could have instant access to the system – so we could all experience this new medium.

About The New Media Life Cycle Analysis

The New Media Life Cycle Analysis is the brainchild of the Tippingpoint Labs strategy team. Each week, our team takes a look at a new media channel and presents its findings here, to help chief marketing officers, directors of marketing and social media experts add some context to their social media and content marketing strategies. If there is a new platform or channel you’d like to see us evaluate, please let us know. We’re more than eager to take a look!

About the author

Andrew Davis -

In 2002, Andrew founded Tippingpoint Labs with journalist James Cosco. Since then, he's spent countless hours exploring the online universe and building a methodological approach to developing digital strategies that drive revenue or reduce costs.

Andrew's always asking big questions and analyzing data to understand markets, online forces and even business models. Andrew's research has resulted in the creation of innovative online metrics including Online Brand Value and Category Brand Value, eye-opening graphical representations of website evolution through the New Media Life Cycle and even using online data to predict offline revenue.

When he's not surfing the web, Andrew's traveling the globe speaking to a wide-variety of audiences about everything from social media to the future of print. Andrew is a frequent contributor to the Tippingpoint Labs website and has been creating valuable content since the early 1990s for The Jim Henson Company, CNN, The Today Show and MTV.

He's contributed to a book of short stories, called The Way Things Were and produced and co-wrote Roadside Ambition a documentary film about one small town with two huge balls.

"In a world where content is consumed as rapidly as it's created, companies need to develop a sound strategy to creating valuable online experiences that can, and should, be leveraged enterprise-wide. There is a content solution to every business challenge."