Google Wave: No, Its Not a Prom Night Hair-Do

In past reviews (which have occasionally shown up on my old blog and my DA journal), usually I limit myself to movies, occasionally books, and rarely video games.  I find that such things are much easier (if spoiler-rific) to review since they are narratives that can be broken down to details like sound or character developments, and I can additionally sum it up to how much money I spent, and how much the experience was worth what I spent.

That said, I have never really taken the time to do a "tech" review, wherein the item in question is a tangible item that does not have a narrative to it that I can dissect.  One may assume that a tech review should be easier, since I can go point by point on the quality of the item, and there is less subjectivity.

Perhaps that is why I don't usually do a tech review since I'm more familiar with the protocols that a form of entertainment can be rated on versus a tool review.  However, I will try my best in giving a sufficient review of Google Wave, of which I've been experiencing over the course of the week.

I could say it like: "First I was all:"

"Then I was all:"

Buuuuut, I think my grade miiiiight suffer without more of a meaty review.

--Writing Space vs Writing Tool


That said, I can start with the whole notion of Google Wave as a writing tool or as a writing space.  Short answer?  Both.  Longer answer?  As a tool, Google Wave allows one to write a document and allow for other users to collaborate on and add to.  Think of a white board that people can all jump onto and write on together in real time.  At this point, it becomes a tool for those who wish to write on, say, a story pitch, refining it as its created like throwing ceramic pots (albeit without a ghostly Patrick Swayze and "Unchained Melodies").

As a writing space, its a bit different than, say, a blog or a forum (in fact, it shares similar qualities to a forum and a blog in that one can post a document or text and readers can comment on it).  Obviously right now, only a limited number of people will see the product, since Google Wave is still in beta.  But nonetheless, your work can be publicly seen by others.  As a writing space, I think Google Wave will have appeal to those who use it.

--Interface

The interface, as mentioned in the previous post, is relatively clean and neat.  Your options are in plain sight.  Clicking on a wave in the list opens it in the right side of the screen.  Above that are further options.  If you wish to reply to a post, click reply, and it drops down a new box to type your reply.

If you wish to edit a box already typed in, you click edit.  You can edit all the texts, including replies and threads.

Clicking playback will reveal, step-by-step ("day by daaaayyyy") all the edits and replies in the order they were entered.  This way you can track what changes were made and by whom.  Nifty!

--Collaborative Use

There are other features in Google Wave I'm leaving out, but there are a few things I found limiting about it.  When mentioning it to a friend, she said she tried it out but ultimately abandoned it.  Her reasoning: "If you want to collaborate on documents, we used Google Docs.  If we wanted to Instant Message, we used an IM service."  To her, she felt that the real-time collaboration was sufficiently handled by Google Docs.  There are a few drawbacks to this service too.  Data security, file corruption, computer lagging, and features that Microsoft Office has but Google Docs does not.

Google Wave does indeed suffer from a bit of the same drawbacks as Google Docs.  However, while Google Docs provides a writing tool and space that is similar to Google Wave (real-time document editing), I found that Google Wave was more suited to my style of writing, specifically creative writing, story pitching to peers, and the ability to collaborate in real-time with other collaborators (which was something my friend did not use either service for).

What I found in Google Wave was the ability to freely create work and text that could be instantly edited and added to with a fellow collaborator in a more seamless and efficient interface.  To those ends, I feel I was very satisfied.

According to Google, Wave was "designed to merge e-mail, instant messaging, wikis, and social networking.  Its has a strong collaborative and real time focus."  Already, the standards for the system were set.  It takes Google Docs, which was a service that seemed angled towards businesses (and how much more businessy can spreadsheets get??), while Google Wave seemed angled towards more of a creative angle for people wanting to work on more "fun" projects.

--Data Storage


However:

...one thing I did find limiting, and actually rather dismaying, was the fact that your wave, and indeed all your hard work, is store online.  While this may seem like a boon to those who are continually on the run and require a place to store their work besides their own laptops or computers, I felt it very limiting.  With the internet connection at SJSU as it is, which is, to put it bluntly, SUCKTASTIC, this can prevent one from checking or working on something while on campus.  A sloppy internet connection will prevent you from accessing a project you may have already done, even if you don't intend to work on it at that moment.  Additionally, your projects and data are at the mercy of the online data storage, which can make it susceptable to loss should something happen to the server.  A scary thought for those who do a lot of online storage (or for those like me, who prefer to have their projects on hand at all times even without an internet connection).  The inability to download your work to perhaps work on in a different program is horribly limiting and present a very real drawback to Google Wave.

Yes, Simon.  I see the problem you are seeing.  Without the ability to download your projects to look at later when one may not have an internet connection, or to edit in another program such as Microsoft Word, the collaboration aspect seems very limited.  At this point, Google Wave becomes a writing tool, but one that isn't as self-sufficient as something as simple as Textedit.  The best one can do is copy and past the text written into one of the aforementioned programs and then paste anything new back into the wave via edit.  Painstaking and potentially dangerous (though the option to playback is available in case something truly disasterous happens).

But overall, I found Google Wave not only extremely slick and fun to use, but valuable for collaborative work.  If one loves instant feedback and real-time editing for things like story pitches or even dialogue exchanges, then Google Wave has the comforts of Microsoft Word and MSN/AIM all rolled into a pretty blue and white package.  Admittedly, Google Wave would be more suited to those who are in the creative writing vein, and prefer to work with others who have a similar writing setting as your own.  If you happen to get an invite to Google Wave, I heartily recommend a try.  You might be pleasantly surprised.  I give Google Wave a solid 85% out of 100%, which is about a B for those keeping score.

Drawn artwork provided by myself and the artist Jamesprower, AKA J-MACHine.