Cool technologies impacting life
A very interesting next few months will be filled with hands on use of the iPad as well as more information (rumored) regarding Google's HTC built tablet. Wow! Technology (R)evolution is heating up in my humble opinion.
Last week, I attended the Google Android “Nexus One” event. As you may have heard, they gave many of us in the audience the device to try out. I decided that before I wrote anything about it (other than saying on television that it’s a “nice little device“), I would give it a real shot. So here I am, a week later, with my thoughts on it. To be clear, this isn’t meant to be a full review or overview, for that, see our review here. Instead, I’m going to come at this from the perspective of a pretty hardcore iPhone user of the past two-plus years.
And to start off, I’ll come right out and say what everyone will want to know: Do I think the Nexus One is better than the iPhone? No. There are certain things it does better (I’ll get to that), but overall, if I had choose one, I would still choose the iPhone — specifically, the iPhone 3GS. Is that my bias talking as someone who has used the device on a daily basis for over two years? Maybe a bit, but overall I do believe that while the Android phones are rapidly catching up to the iPhone, they are still not quite up to that device’s quality.
Lest you think I’m a complete newbie to the Android platform, I’ve actually had and used a number of Android devices over the past year or so. I still have a G1 unit, as well as the myTouch3G. I’ve also used the Droid quite a bit since its release. Each of those devices is solid in their own regard when compared to 99% of the phones on the market. And the Nexus One is the best yet. But none are the iPhone.
I’m going to focus on the three biggest things that stand out in my mind about the Nexus One as compared to the iPhone (both good and bad).
Google Apps
Praise of the iPhone aside, there is no question what the Nexus One does better: Google apps. Every single Google app is better on the Nexus One (and all Android phones, for that matter, but on the Nexus One it’s more obvious because this device is the fastest). Gmail, Maps, and Google Voice in particular absolutely blow away their counterparts on the iPhone (of which only Maps is a native application, and Google Voice, famously, isn’t available).
It’s hard to describe just how great Google Voice is on Android. When I set it up, I had to confirm maybe three or four things, and I was all ready to go. In two minutes, my Google Voice number completely took over my Nexus One. This included getting not only getting all Google Voice incoming calls and voicemails, but doing outbound calls with my Google Voice number as well. This is absolutely the future of number portability, and that no doubt has the carriers — and likely even Apple – spooked.
Gmail is also ridiculously better on Android because it includes things like native support for starring messages, labels, and threading. Again, this is true of all Android phones, but the Nexus One showcases how much better Gmail is on Android than on the iPhone because it’s the fastest. If there is one thing that makes me want to use Android every day, it’s Gmail. And that won’t change unless Google ever (or ever is allowed to) build a native Gmail app for the iPhone.
Maps offers a number of features on the Nexus One that aren’t on the iPhone native version. This includes Latitude (which can run in the background), and Navigation. Other Google apps, like Google Sky Map and Google Goggles are also pretty cool, and useful to varying degrees, and again, only available for Android.
Third Party Apps
Maybe the hardest thing (or Apple’s greatest strength, depending how you’re looking at it) in using an Android device after being accustomed to the iPhone is the app difference. Simply put, iPhone apps, as a whole, are much, much better than Android apps. Maybe that’s because Android apps aren’t quite as mature yet. But I don’t know. The Android Market has been around for over a year now, and the fact that there still isn’t a Twitter app that’s as good as the top five iPhone Twitter apps is a bit odd to me. Seesmic for Android is the closest yet, but it still gets blown away by the polish of apps like Tweetie on the iPhone.
Likewise, none of the games are nearly as good on Android as they are on the iPhone. It’s not even close. On the iPhone, some of the 3D games rival the console versions, or at the very least, the handheld console versions. On Android, we might as well be playing Pong.
All that said, there are a number of apps that are useful on the Nexus One in ways they couldn’t be on the iPhone. That includes the instant messaging apps (again, Google’s own seems to be the best), and Pandora. Pandora on the iPhone is great, but you have to it open at all times. On the Nexus One, it’s brilliant because it can play music in the background while you do other things. Obviously, this issue (background apps) has been talked about in the past ad-naseum, so I won’t dwell on it here.
Again, it’s worth repeating that the best Android apps are all Google-made. That’s not true on the iPhone where most of the best apps aren’t Apple-made. To me, that speaks to the power of Apple’s platform. Android’s platform will continue to mature no doubt, but so will the iPhone’s. It has to be worrisome for Google that the divide is still this wide.
Hardware
The Nexus One hardware is in some ways superior to the iPhone. For example, I’ve never been a fan of the iPhone’s plastic backing, which it received after the first generation (which had an aluminum back). The Nexus One has more of a solid rubber and aluminum back that feels nicer. HTC, which makes the device, has also finally managed to get a removable battery backing that isn’t awful or ugly.
The front of the Nexus One leaves something to be desired in my opinion. It’s the closest yet to the iPhone in terms of sleekness, but whereas the iPhone is almost one smooth surface except for the one button indent, the Nexus One has a face that is broken up by its frame and the silly trackball that Google keeps insisting manufacturers include. I have never once used the trackball, nor do I intend to. It’s a waste of space, and makes the device look and feel cheaper.
While the Nexus One does have a nicer screen than the iPhone, it has a downside too. The OLED screen is much harder to see in daylight when compared to the iPhone’s screen. This is the same problem the new Zune HD has, and it really is a problem. In the dark, these screens look beautiful, better than the iPhone’s — but it’s not always dark. And when outside during the day at time, it’s almost unusable.
Instead of the one button that the iPhone employs, the Nexus One sticks with the standard 4-button (not including the scroll ball) Android approach. These buttons take a little getting used to, but can be powerful if used correctly. That said, I’m still not sure Android’s hardware wouldn’t be better served if these were software-based. There are a number of ways to get to Search via these buttons, for example. And while I get that this is Google’s thing, I find this repetitive, and in some cases confusing. One method to do that would be fine.
The Nexus One’s 5 megapixel camera does seem to take significantly nicer pictures than the iPhone’s 3 megapixel variety. But the biggest advantage of the camera pay be its LED flash, which is pretty powerful (though not fantastic for taking pictures in dark rooms still). I’d be shocked if the next version of the iPhone didn’t gain both of these upgrades.
The single biggest problem I have with the Nexus One hardware is likely a combination of hardware and software. I mis-click on things way too often on the Nexus One. While the device’s touch screen is obviously a huge improvement over the original G1’s, it’s still nowhere near as accurate as the iPhone’s. I’m not the only one who has noticed this. I often find myself mis-hitting icons, mis-typing letters, and the touchscreen mixed with the Nexus One web browser is simply not very good at all (try the menu system on espn.com to see what I mean). Apple is great at nailing the little things, and I’m not really sure why the touchscreen mechanics are so much better on the iPhone. But they are.
Speaking of the touchscreen, whereas before it was just odd that Google wouldn’t include multi-touch support in its apps, now it’s just annoying. The little “+/-” magnifying glass that shows up when you should just be able to pinch to zoom is beyond lame. And it may be even worse when viewing/manipulating pictures on the Nexus One. I’m not sure if Google still has their gentlemen’s agreement with Apple not to use the multi-touch gestures, but Palm seems to be using them just fine.
One Device To Rule Them All
If you were to ask me to describe in general terms why I like the iPhone more than the Nexus One, it would be hard to do. On paper, Nexus One seems to have a lot going for it, including a nicer screen, a better camera, a faster processor, etc. But using them side by side, when it comes to regular, everyday use, the iPhone (again, the iPhone 3GS) still wins.
Perhaps the single biggest reason that I like Apple products, and their software, in particular, is the attention to detail the company puts in. In my mind, that’s exactly what still separates the iPhone from all the Android phones. It’s the little things. The things that are almost too small for you to even notice, but the make the experience subtly better.
Android is like a very nice painting done entirely with broad strokes. The iPhone is more like a masterpiece in which every little detail has been meticulously defined. Just as people have different tastes in art, people will have different tastes when it comes to the iPhone versus the Nexus One. But that doesn’t change the fact that some pieces of artwork are considered to be a masterpieces, while some are considered to be merely very good.
If you’re an iPhone user who is sick of AT&T or just looking for a new device, I’m not sure that the Nexus One will be enough to satisfy you. Both Jason and Mike of TechCrunch have successfully switched from the iPhone to the Android platform, but both will admit that there were speed bumps (well, Jason will anyway — while Mike will privately, then deny saying such things).
Jason made some compelling arguments a few days ago about that switch, and how it takes time to get used to Android. I definitely agree with that. And think I could get pretty comfortable with Android. But the point is, I don’t really want to. In my mind, the iPhone is still the better device. Not better in every regard, but better overall. The Nexus One comes close, closer than any Android phone yet, but it cannot snatch the iPhone’s cigar.
Further, the problem with switching to something like the Nexus One now is that even if you think it’s better than an iPhone, a new iPhone is inevitably coming in another 6 months or so that will be much better than the Nexus One. Who knows, maybe we’ll even see it on Verizon this year, which would negate at least half of the complaints about the device.
And, of course, there will be better Android phones coming down the pipeline as well. So if I were an iPhone user thinking about switching (which again, I’m not), I’d probably wait to see what Apple announces in June and then see what Android phone is available by then if the next iPhone doesn’t blow you away.
It’s impressive how far these Android devices have come in a year. But the software/hardware combination still lacks the refinement of the iPhone. Maybe by this time next year, with Google now taking a more hands-on approach, they’ll have a device that can match Apple’s. But they’ll still likely lack the apps. And the iPhone will still likely lack the best Google apps. But it’s good to have competition. And it’s good to have two companies that can play off each other and push innovation — while at the same time, changing the industry. It’s becoming very clear that Google and Apple will be those two.
Company: Launch Date: December 11, 2009 The Nexus One is the Google Phone launched on January 5th, 2010. The Phone is sold at google.com/phone and it will be soon available at T-Mobile.
The phone runs on a Qualcomm 1 GHz Snapdragon chip, has a super… Learn More
Company: Apple Website: apple.com/iphone Launch Date: January 1, 2007 Apple’s iPhone was introduced at MacWorld in January 2007 and officially went on sale June 29, 2007, selling 146,000 units within the first weekend of launch. The phone (as well as its newer self, the… Learn More
Website: google.com Location: Mountain View, California, United States Founded: September 7, 1998 IPO: August 19, 2004 Google primarily provides search and advertising services, which together aim to organize and monetize the world’s information. In addition to its dominant search engine, it offers a plethora of tools and platforms including its more popular… Learn More
Website: apple.com Location: Cupertino, California, United States Founded: April 1, 1976 IPO: 1980 Started by Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak, and Ronald Wayne, Apple has expanded from computer maker to include consumer electronics over the last 30 years, officially changing their name from… Learn More
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Google had a heck of a 2009, kicking off with the launch of their authorized reseller program and wrapping up with the announcement that the City of Los Angeles was going to Google Apps. Last year also marked the launch of several new technologies under the Google banner, including Voice, Chrome — the browser and the OS — and Wave. Later today, I’m speaking with Jeff Ragusa, the Google Apps channel manager to get some perspective on what these technologies meant for resellers in 2009, and what VARs can expect in the year ahead. Here’s some of what I want to know more about.
Google Voice – When I reviewed Google Voice back in December, I noted that while its call-forwarding, voicemail transcription functionality is all there, it couldn’t stand up to a real enterprise VoIP solution. Google’s acquisition of Gizmo5 could change that, since it may very well transition Google Voice to a full VoIP service with potential application in the SMB workspace.
Google Wave - This hybrid instant message/e-mail service was easily the most talked about and least understood Google offering of late 2009. The collaborative aspect holds a lot of appeal, but it’s still in closed beta. It remains to be seen how, if at all, resellers will be able to leverage Wave.
Google Gears – When Offline Gmail first came to the reseller program late last year, facilitated by the Google Gears Firefox and IE extension, there was a chorus of “about time!” in my inbox. I have to wonder if Google has any more plans to integrate Gears with other applications.
Google Chrome OS – Right now, Google has no plans to release their cloud-facilitated operating system on anything but netbooks, but it’s easy to see how an ultra-lightweight, network-connected desktop might be appealing to an enterprise. Besides,
Google Docs – Formerly the golden child of cloud applications, the Google Docs word processing and spreadsheet suite is going to face a lot of competition from all sides in 2010. Microsoft’s Office Web is going to bring its considerable name recognition and desktop integration to bear, while Zoho and HyperOffice can’t seem to stop upgrading or adding features for a second. Does Google have a game plan? Where do resellers fit in?
And yes, I know about Google Nexus One.
More thoughts potentially later this week — after I speak with Google’s Ragusa. In the meantime I wonder: Which Google technologies will gain the channel truly embrace? Hmmm…
Read More About This Topic
Google is working on a tablet computer with HTC, the company that built the hardware for the Nexus One “Google Phone“, according to a report.
The report claims that HTC has “been working closely with Google (
) for the past 18 months” on “several working models of a touch tablet”.
Are Google and HTC about to challenge both the iPhone and the Apple tablet, rumored to be called iSlate?
Australian news site SmartHouse, which first published the story, pits the Google/HTC offering as a direct rival to Apple’s tablet ambitions. But the device might equally prove a threat to Microsoft: getting Google Chrome OS into consumer’s hands is key to the operating system’s success.
Skeptics might argue that Google will never promote a tablet computer of its own: that would endanger its relationships with other hardware makers. And yet the Nexus One proves that Google very much will tread on toes if the move makes strategic sense.
What do you think: could a Google Tablet rival the iSlate? Or will this rumored device never see the light of day?
[image for illustration only, courtesy Gizmodo]
The genius brothers behind Google Wave
October 27, 2009 2:10 p.m. EDTBrothers Jens, left, and Lars Rasmussen grew up to become some of the world's best Web developers.STORY HIGHLIGHTS
- Two brothers from Denmark invented Google Wave, a product that aims to kill e-mail
- Jens and Lars Rasmussen made it big when they sold the idea for Google Maps
- The brothers are trying to prove risk and innovation can be engineered like software
- They nervously await the day Google Wave will be released to the public
(CNN) -- Lars and Jens Rasmussen were broke and jobless -- with only $16 between them -- when they made it big in the Web world by selling their idea for Google Maps.
Years later, after finding cushy employment at Google Inc., the Rasmussen brothers flew in May from Sydney, Australia, to California where they would debut their sophomore product, a Web application called Google Wave, which they say, quite audaciously, will kill e-mail and forever change online communication.
But their lives didn't depend on its success -- not like before.
Strange as it may seem, that worried them.
With Google Wave, the Danish brothers are trying to recreate the kind of near-ruin stress they experienced when they came up with the product that made them wildly successful.
In doing so, they're trying to prove that innovation, a somewhat magical and ethereal happening, can be engineered just like software.
But, as they prepared to take the stage to unveil Google Wave at a Web developers' conference in San Francisco, their faith in that hypothesis started to slip.
Was Wave too ambitious? Would the glitches come back? Was it too soon?
Were they under enough pressure?
And, worst of all: Would they become one-hit wonders?
A case of nerves
The night before Wave's big debut at the Google I/O conference in San Francisco, Lars Rasmussen laid in bed from 2:30 to 5 a.m.
It wasn't restful sleep.
His wife, Yarima, caught him practicing his pitch for Wave during the fretful slumber. He waved his hands in the air as if he were pointing at a projection screen. She knew he hadn't been sleeping in months as he prepared Wave for this presentation.
Video: Behind the scenes with Wave
Video: Google Wave explained
The next morning at the conference, Lars stood offstage, trying to calm his nerves by listening to Eminem on an iPod while a co-worker gave him a glowing introduction.
"The engineering leadership behind what you're about to see is the work of two brothers and an amazing engineering team with them," said Vic Gundotra, a Google vice president of engineering. He spoke in a coolly excited tone, like that of a school guidance counselor.
"Those two brothers are Lars and Jens Rasmussen. You might remember those names because those were the same amazing people that did another magical app, called maps ... Google Maps."
The stage at the conference had a game-show feel to it: A big logo -- all vertical stripes, just like "The Price is Right" -- served as a backdrop to two Jeopardy-looking podiums in the center of the stage.
Lars looked like he'd just gotten off a shift at the Gap. A microphone headset was stuck to his ear and he wore jeans and an untucked blue T-shirt with the Google Wave logo on it.
He fidgeted with a water bottle, opened his laptop and nervously began the biggest pitch of his life.
'Let's start a Wave'
Lars has always been the pitchman.
Jens is the quiet older brother: the eccentric, the idea guy.
When he's onto a big idea, Jens almost never writes it down. Words confine good thoughts and kill them, he says. He mulled over his idea for Google Maps for years before putting it into a written proposal.
But with Wave, he didn't have that luxury.
When the brothers joined Google together after selling Jens' idea for Google Maps, they already knew he had to come up with something new -- something bigger.
So Jens set to work. He shuttered himself in his Copenhagen, Denmark, apartment, tuned his television to MTV, watched some music videos and let his thoughts drift.
By the end of a weekend, he had come up with Google Wave, his idea for an e-mail killer.
We asked ourselves the question: What would e-mail look like if it was invented today?
--Lars RasmussenHe sent the idea to Lars in an e-mail.
"I remember being immediately sold," Lars said. "He'll claim it took a couple of days, but that's entirely untrue."
In theory, the idea for Wave is simple. It's e-mail updated for the Internet age, Jens says.
E-mail as we know it is based on the snail-mail format: you send a message; your friend receives it. Wave makes mail collaborative and instant. When you type a message to a friend, he or she sees what you're typing as you type it. You can jump in and start drafting a reply before the initial message is complete. Wave also lets users collaborate on editable documents, called Wikis, share photos, update blogs, set appointments and chat in big groups. You can add conference calls to a Wave. A translation function called Rosy will translate chat messages between languages as you write.
Watch a conversation about how Google Wave works
Jens hopes the product's name will replace "e-mail" in English vernacular. So, after Wave's public release later this year, you might say to a friend, "Let's start a Wave" instead of "I'll send you an e-mail."
Wave is free and runs through the Internet, meaning that, like Gmail, you don't have to download a program to use it. This also makes Wave highly ambitious from a technical perspective. Lars and Jens are almost performing magic tricks with Internet browsers. Asking a developer to create a stellar piece of software that runs through the Web is somewhat like asking a composer to write a symphony on a smartphone.
The Rasmussens admit their product is confusing to explain and is trying to make a massive leap forward into uncharted technological territory.
For these reasons, Jens, the idea guy, considered proceeding more slowly with Wave's release. Maybe he and Lars should wait another year, or put off some of its more complicated features, he suggested.
But Lars is the risk-taker. And Jens folded to his vision.
The e-mail killer
On stage at the conference in San Francisco, Lars started his spiel.
"When we started this project more than two years ago, we asked ourselves the question: What would e-mail look like if it was invented today?
"And obviously there are about a million ways you can try to answer that question. What you're going to see today, Google Wave, is our attempt."
Lars struggled to explain Google Wave to the audience.
He pulled out all kinds of comparisons to try to get the message across: Wave is like mobile texting, it's like a Wiki, it's like instant messaging, it's like a blog. It's like e-mail -- well, kind of. It's something new, he said.
At first, it was difficult to tell if the audience was buying it. Some demos of Wave's features rolled by with scant reaction from the crowd.
"Don't be shy, you guys," Lars said. "If you like something, don't be shy in letting us know. We can handle any amount of applause."
Soon things started to pick up.
I do believe that you can achieve more if you're willing to take risks.
--Lars RasmussenRELATED TOPICSWhen Lars typed a Wave message to Wave's group product manager, Stephanie Hannon, it showed up on both screens of their computer monitors simultaneously, character by character. When they both started typing at the same time, the streams of moving text looked like furious ants crawling around on the screen.
The audience cheered in excitement.
Twelve minutes into the presentation, Jens made his entrance, if you could call it an entrance. He looked about as comfortable as a spokesman for a hemorrhoid cream.
His job was to demonstrate the way that Wave will play back the history of a message if someone enters a conversation late.
The audience loved it. It seemed like they were going to be sold on these new ideas.
But it was still early.
"So, now that I'm caught up on this Wave, I'm just going to add my reply," Jens said.
" 'Me ... too,' " Jens said, speaking the words he was typing into a message.
"Oh!" he said, surprised.
The program had crashed.
Recipe for risk
When the dotcom bubble burst in the early 2000s, the Rasmussen brothers were laid off within weeks of each other, both from a company called Digital Fountain.
There were virtually no jobs to look for in technology. So the brothers cashed in one of their pensions, sapped bank accounts and put their lives on the line to chase a kooky idea Jens had about map-making on the Internet.
Without the risk and the pressure, they wouldn't have been able to do it, the brothers said.
"I do believe that you can achieve more if you're willing to take risks," Lars said in a recent phone interview. "There's almost a total correlation between the amount of risk you're willing to take and then the amount of stuff you then potentially can get done."
The Rasmussen brothers have done their best to recreate the high-stakes situation that produced Google Maps.
They wanted to make a stress incubator, to start a fire under their team that would propel its creativity to new heights.
This was their formula:
• Google Wave would operate as a start-up company within the corporate giant of Google.
• The 60-person Wave team would be based in Sydney, Australia, far away from Google's corporate headquarters in Mountain View, California.
Watch a CNN exclusive video from the Wave team in Sydney
• Google employees who wanted to work on Wave would have to take a risk to join the brothers, a diluted version of what the Rasmussens faced when they started Google Maps. The team took cuts to their bonus pay, with the hopes of a big payout if Wave were to succeed.
• And their project would be secret. The rest of Google's project files, codes and other documents are accessible to anyone in the company. Not Wave's.
The Rasmussens felt good about their recipe for success through risk-taking. But it also made them more nervous.
Along the way, they found another form of motivation: the fear of failure.
Just a dress rehearsal
"Did you notice how quickly it reloads?" Jens said with a laugh, trying to recover from the crash in the middle of his presentation.
Throughout the rest of the Rasmussen brothers' pitch for Wave, Jens and Lars pulled out a number of pre-planned jokes to deflect attention from the shortcomings and crashes of their fledgling product.
Lars started dancing and humming elevator music to make up for one lull in the demo, much to the horror of Yarima, his Cuban wife, who says Lars is an adroit Latin dancer.
"Inside my Wave I'm going to write 'check this out' and then I'm going to copy the link in there, and then ... I'm going to dance a little while the system spectacularly fails," Lars said, trailing off as Wave crashed again.
The brothers continued in this awkward way for what seemed like an eternity.
But when the presentation ended, the audience had loved it.
Behind the Scenes blog: The reporter on writing from afar
When Lars demonstrated Wave's ability to translate between languages, in real-time, as a person types, the audience cheered so loudly and for so long that it felt like they were calling for an encore at a music festival. At the conclusion of the show, Jens remembers the developers giving them a standing ovation, shaking their laptops above their heads.
Lars and Jens were elated.
But the May demo was only a dress rehearsal, one held in front of a friendly audience that understands Wave's technical ambitions.
The real show will come when Wave is released to the public, when Google's army of users decides if it wants to take this leap beyond e-mail with the Rasmussen brothers.
Or if they're up for that risk.
Howard Greenstein is a Social Media Strategy and Marketing consultant, and President of the Harbrooke Group. He’s also a national board member of Social Media Club.
) is an innovative new way for people to communicate and collaborate. But as Gina Tripani, author of The Complete Guide To Google Wave, noted in her recent keynote at the recent Web 2.0 Expo in New York, Wave is designed for power users. Wave is hard. There are a lot of features, all bundled together, and it can be intimidating for anyone to just look at it and decide “this is a great project management tool” or “this is the way we’re going to manage our notes about the proposal.”
But taking the time to understand Wave and how it works might be a worthwhile investment for business users. Here’s what Wave could mean for the future of business communication and collaboration.
One App to Rule Them All
Wave is already being used for projects and collaboration among many small groups and organizations around the world, in large part because of its strength in combining familiar communication platforms. Author of Content Nation and frequent “Wave Rider” John Blossom noted that Wave is “a unique blend of real-time messaging, applications and online documents. While it can be frustrating at times dealing with Wave’s flexibility, the ability of Wave to support a number of styles of publishing and communications simultaneously in a single document is perhaps its greatest strength.”
When people use Waves, it is helpful to think about communications theory. Daniel Levi’s Group Dynamics for Teams classifies our modern communication methods when it comes to project-oriented work:
“Same Time, Different Place (STDP) meetings are distributed meetings in which team members interact through a combination of telephone, video or text … Different Time, Same Place (DTSP) meetings are useful for work teams that exist across different shifts … or whose members who travel frequently or telecommute. The information technology serves as a storage system so members can pass on information as needed… Different Time, Different Place (DTDP) meetings are those in which team members share the same virtual space on an intranet (i.e. internal communications networks.) Technologies such as online bulletin boards, chat rooms, and databases help support a team’s operations. This allows team members to participate in the team process whenever and wherever opportunities arise.”
The table below illustrates how our current communication tools facilitate STDP and DTSP communication, and where they overlap.
Most of these systems are disparate, don’t always work well with each other, and generally require us to bridge some connection gaps.
Enter Google Wave and its ability to cover all of these quadrants at once, within one application. This is the main reason why Wave is so game-changing. It has the potential to phase out other disconnected means in favor of one consolidated communications tool.
Real-World Applications
Let’s think about how this works in the real world. For a Same Time Same Place team meeting for a client pitch, Wave can be put up on a screen or projected, and each person can contribute his or her own notes to the discussion. Unlike a Google Document or other shared medium, it is quite clear who’s typing what, and two people can be working on a similar thought in a similar space at the same time.
At the end of the meeting, what’s left is the thread of the discussion with the captured notes. Each Wave is made of “Wavelets,” i.e. threaded conversations spawned from an initial wave. These wavelets contain one or more messages, known as blips. This makes it possible for each Wave discussion to spawn separate Wavelets for follow up after a meeting. (See also Google Wave: A Complete Guide for more details.)
The team leader assigns owners to the key areas for the pitch, and the meeting breaks up. The follow-up that happens can be thought of as Different Time, Same Place. People can asynchronously add to the conversation that started in person, fleshing out the points and expanding on them. Others can contribute or be brought into the discussion as needed.
Say the New York team needs creative for the pitch, but time is running out on the East Coast. They call a creative shop in Hawaii they’ve worked with, and add them to the wave. This is Same Time, Different Place communication, showing the remote team what is needed in real time. The teams can share pictures so everyone is on the same page. New York assigns Hawaii the work and goes home.
The Hawaii team creates their mockups and posts them to the wave. The New York creative lead logs on later in the evening, and leaves a follow up note – Different Time, Different Place – and the Hawaii team reads the feedback and edits their deliverable.
As you can see, Wave clearly exists in an area that touches all of these methods of interaction. And it lets that interaction shift from one mode to another very fluidly as a project progresses and group needs evolve.
Adding, Customizing, and Scaling
Anything Wave can’t do on its own, can be accomplished via plug-ins, which make Wave highly customizable and let users gear a Wave for a specific project or need.
For example, there’s a real-time conference call plug-in from Ribbit.com, and a plug-in for video conferencing from 6 Rounds that can be used to initiate a call as well.
Since Wave can show the entire thread of a conversation, all the document artifacts that have brought a group to a specific point of discussion are available. This is useful and, while not unique, it is presented differently than other collaboration systems.
The Future of Wave for Enterprise
Would an enterprise consider the Wave model? About two months ago I produced a podcast call with the Google Wave team on behalf of the Supernova Conference, and the team mentioned selling Wave as a product as they do with Google Apps for Domains.
At a recent Enterprise 2.0 Conference, Novell, SAP and Thoughtworks all announced ways they were connecting with or innovating on top of Google Wave.
With Wave, Google (
) is looking to expand beyond their mission “to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful” and start doing the same thing for corporations. Inside companies, tools like Wave make it easy to see who has contributed, what they contributed, and when they contributed it.
However, while Wave may eventually turn out to be easier than a wiki, Sharepoint, Lotus Notes, or other collaboration systems, it is not quite there today. Google Wave needs substantial development and usability improvements.
As Blossom told me, “there are a lot of tools missing in Wave, and some of the challenge is just the chaos of it being a new program. But I believe Google is allowing culture to develop. If they implemented ‘draft mode’ or some of the admin and moderator tools, this might prevent new types of community driven moderation or norms from being created.”
This is why the product is being cast wide and tested by many. Google is counting on evolution to favor the strong features and remove the weak ones.
How has your Wave experience been? Please share your thoughts in the comments below.
More Google Wave resources from Mashable:
- HOW TO: Get Started with Google Wave
- Google Wave: A Complete Guide
- 4 Surprising Google Wave Uses
- Testing Google Wave: This Thing is Tidal
- The Top 6 Game-Changing Features of Google Wave
- Google Wave: 5 Ways It Could Change the Web
- Google Wave Extensions: An Inside Look
- Could Google Wave Redefine Email and Web Communication?
Google is an amazing company, even more so from the inside. To the outside world Google is just search. But Google has made three big bets on the future of computing; Chrome (browser), Google Apps (cloud), and Android (mobile) that will change everything. VentureBeat interviewed me yesterday about my first month at Google.
Vibe – Google is a high energy environment. Lots of smart people with big ideas. Everything is data driven. Decisions are made based on data that has been analyzed, and going forward everything is monitored and measured based on the data. Opinions and “gut feel” are considered too, but in the end, results are measured by data. Even things like travel expense caps for airfares and hotels are data driven. They keep track of every trip taken and the actual costs for airfares and hotels, then establish the caps based on the data.
The Google campus is beautiful, funky, and efficient. There are bicycles everywhere for people to use to get between buildings. In some ways it feels like a college campus, but the intensity level is much higher. Most people sit in open cubes with four or more people in a pod. Offices with doors typically have 2 or 3 people in them. People work in groups and there is a real sense of teamwork everywhere you look.
Perks – Free breakfast, lunch, and dinner in the gourmet cafes in each building. The food is awesome!! The 401K match is 50% of your contribution up to $8,250. Health plan is pretty good, but not as good as Microsoft’s plan. MSFT pays for everything, no co-pays, no deductibles. Google really caters to employees needs. Onsite dry cleaning service, car washes, Oil changes, ATM, Fitness Centers, Haircuts, Massage, and Concierge services.
Meetings - 30 minutes is the standard, start on time and end early if possible. Video Conferences are pretty standard since the company is geographically distributed. Nearly every conference room has video conference equipment. Everyone uses Google Docs to capture meeting notes, a true example of real time collaboration.
Gmail – The Gmail you all use as consumers is the same email all Google employees use internally. Threaded conversations are a HUGE time saver and help keep things organized. I didn’t really appreciate that feature until my departure from Microsoft when my email inbox was flooded with messages many with the same subject line. Gmail made it easy to manage. Links, not attachments, also ensure that you are always working with the latest version of a file. No more searching for the email with the attachment and then making sure it is the latest version with up to date changes. Offline Gmail makes all your email and attachments available offline. Great for airplanes or travel.
The future of computing – I think Google has made three big bets on the future of computing; Chrome (browser), Google Apps (cloud), and Android (mobile). The trends are pretty clear. All the exciting new applications are running in the browser, with application code in the cloud, and the cell phone as the platform. Your cell phone will become your primary computer. I think in the near future there will be docking stations everywhere with a screen and a keyboard. You simply pull out your phone, plug it into the docking station, and instantly all your applications and data are available to you. Chrome, Google Apps, and Android make this vision possible.
Think about the cell phone you had 10 years ago, in 1999, and compare it to the phone you have today. More power, more memory, better networks, more applications, etc. Now project 5 or 10 years ahead. The vision of your phone as your computer is not far off. You will be able to decide which applications and data you want resident on the phone and which you want in the cloud. You will be able to plug it in anywhere; in an airport, hotel, airplane, office lobby, etc, and have instant access to everything you need.
2010 the turning point - I think 2010 will be the year that enterprises of all sizes start their transition to Gmail and Google Apps, and take their first steps towards the vision of the future. The move towards Cloud Computing is obvious. Gmail and Google Apps are the easy first steps in that direction. The cost savings are enormous,over $500 per user per year. Compare that to buying software licenses and maintenance from the old style software giants, and add the costs of server hardware, and IT managers to run them.
The next 5 years are going to be exciting. There will be big changes in the software industry. I am thrilled to be at Google and look forward to being a small part of the movement to the future of computing.
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A very interesting view from someone who recently left Microsoft to work at Google.
Google and Yelp are in advanced acquisition negotiations, we’ve confirmed from multiple sources. And while the deal isn’t done, we’ve heard that it’s very likely to close. The price is supposedly at least $500 million.
Yelp was founded in 2004 as a way to let users leave reviews on local businesses. Comscore puts worldwide traffic at nearly 9 million monthly unique visitors, and it has been growing fast – the company says it’s real numbers are more like 25 million monthly uniques.
Yelp has whispered that 2009 revenues will be around $30 million and are expecting $50 million or so in 2010.
