E-mail, as you know, was invented in the early 1960s, and, of course, was designed to mimic snail mail. But the invention of e-mail predates the Internet, and was way before all the recent developments in social media and social sharing sites–before Wikis, message boards and Instant Messaging. So when Google started to work on a replacement for traditional e-mail, they started by asking themselves What would e-mail look like were it invented today?
Well, turns out it’s still browser-based, like the old e-mail. But imagine that you’re typing an e-mail to your friend, but he’s online as you’re typing it. Guess what? Your friend sees you typing live, sort of like an IM, but in real time! So it’s more like messaging than email, that is, IF the recipient is online. If your friend is offline, it reads more like a trail on Facebook, or your standard message board. But you can add people into the mix, so you’re CCing people live, if they happen to be online, or including them in the conversation, if they’re offline. You can even drag photos from your desktop, live, and they appear immediately into the conversation.
The technology, called Wave, is purposely Open Source (they’re counting on US to help build the functionality) and can also be embedded on blogs, so users can carry these conversations into the blogosphere. An old-fashioned comment is now a conversation that exists ON the blog, like normal, but also in the Wave client, simultaneously. You don’t even have to be on the blog site to comment.
No surprise that all of these updates can be done live from your mobile phone, just like an IM.
AND it’s all like a Wiki because you can edit each other within the conversation. Afraid of someone rewriting history? The whole trail of the edits is viewable. So that can’t really happen. Reversion is always possible, like, say, in Photoshop.
Of course, this post is entirely based on Google’s demo. Who knows when it’s actually released if it’ll really work as smoothly as they make it sound. But that shouldn’t stop you from getting jazzed about the realm of possibilities here, which is the most exciting part by my way of thinking. Whether the Beta works now or a year from now, eventually we’re all going to be catching the Wave. And I’ve only hit the highlights. There are robots that perform tasks, like instant, live translation between some 40 languages, polls you can create for your friends, games, and a whole host of other features.
If you want to catch the full video demo at Google I/O 2009, check it out after the jump.
Comments (13)
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That is not e-mail. That is a cluttered, personal chat room.
posted by Lorne on 6-4-2009 at 6:49 am
Ditto. I like email. I do not use chat rooms.
reCAPTCHA
Chicken Argonaut
posted by lewen on 6-4-2009 at 10:44 am
I have to agree that this sounds less than thrilling.
The whole point of email is that one can compose and shape the message. If I wanted to IM someone, I would. I can already drag and drop images into emails with relative ease.
I do not want people to be able to edit my “emails” (even with a tracking log) just as I have no desire to edit the emails of others.
Maybe I’m missing something (and I admit I do not have time at the moment to view the full demo), but this seems like a senseless infusion of ADD into our already fragmented communication stream
posted by EMStoveken on 6-4-2009 at 11:11 am
This just reminds me of a horrible real-time, multi-line chat bbs from back in the day/facebook/twitter/gtalk/wiki mashup. What a mess. And I don’t find seeing the letters pop up as they’re typed to be innovative.
Of course I’m basing this on solely on what you’ve written. I can’t stream the video at the office.
recaptcha: the emptier
posted by nikki on 6-4-2009 at 11:45 am
@EM/nikki et al: the good news is, no one is going to take e-mail away, just as no one has taken snail mail away. my mother-in-law still hasn’t made the switch from snail mail to email and she’s proud of it. loves to send stuff to us in the mail, to buy stamps, all of it. for her, email is a horrible real-time mashup mess.
let me also say, the jury is out on Wave until i get my hands on the technology. i’m just excited by the possibilites, as stated.
posted by David K. Israel on 6-4-2009 at 12:14 pm
Have to agree that at first blush (and without digging deeper) this does not look like the thing for me. I also sometimes take some time to craft emails, depending on what I need to say. I don’t use chat rooms either. But then I also said I didn’t see a reason to have a computer at home (many years and several computers ago)! So what do I know?!
posted by Hyacinth on 6-4-2009 at 12:41 pm
I disagree with everyone. For all the social media junkies, it’s quite perfect.
People reject the changes within social media such as facebook, twitter, etc, though they’ve grown and are still growing at superb rates. ADD or not, this is the way the world is turning…
posted by Maya on 6-4-2009 at 1:16 pm
I agree… leave me to my email. I don’t use chat rooms and barely use facebook. I sometimes need time to craft the right response and don’t want the recipient peering over my shoulder while I do so.
posted by Hyacinth on 6-4-2009 at 1:25 pm
Okay. I took a closer look at the Google site (still can’t view the demo) and this seems less like a replacement or even evolution of email and more of a dip into social networking for Google.
Still doesn’t smell like my brand of vodka, but its intentions seem a little less grating.
The open source bit is intriguing too. Might be fun to watch it evolve.
posted by EMStoveken on 6-4-2009 at 1:53 pm
This looks like it could either be the worst idea in the history of ever or the best thing since broadband internet. I use social networking a fair amount, and I don’t like the looks of this personally – but as noted, this is the trend, and time will tell if it’s a long-term trend or just a fad. Many probably thought IMing was a fad at one point, too.
posted by Dan on 6-4-2009 at 5:19 pm
As somebody who wrote web-based groupware for eight years, I think Wave is a pretty big deal! There are some problems (namely, collaborative online projects) that it seems to handle very well — in fact, even better than current market leaders like Basecamp.
I think the major problem here is that Google is talking about Wave as a generic replacement for email. I think it’s only a replacement for email *in certain contexts* — the most obvious one to me is the context in which you were using email as the basis for working on something in a group. Email with a bunch of CCs kinda sucks if you’re trying to have a real conversation and end up with a product. We all know this, but we do it anyway because we don’t have anything better (or actually, we don’t have anything AS SIMPLE…email is simple, that’s why it’s so popular).
I, for one, welcome our new Wave overlords. :)
posted by Chris Higgins on 6-4-2009 at 5:55 pm
Simply Overrated. I ca do all of this stuff already
posted by Birdy on 6-5-2009 at 11:47 am
That’s a good point, Chris – if this can be used in a group setting.. but wait, can’t YIM do that, and AIM? The difference here is that for the messengers you’d need everyone to have that particular program, whereas Wave would be through the browser. A slight difference, but maybe a significant one.
posted by Dan on 6-5-2009 at 1:58 pm