http://wave.google.com/help/wave/about.html

If there is one thing I learnt having watched the ‘About Google Wave’ video it was that developers are not cool. They don’t look cool, they don’t sound cool and they are not the most exciting communicators despite whoops and hollers from an apparently enthusiastic and over excited audience. I can only assume they spend too much time communicating over digital channels and developing the likes of Google Wave to the point that when they actually open their mouths to talk they sound like a nasal, Americanised Stephen Hawking who’s only bedroom window is one with ‘X’ in the top right hand corner.

So call me cynical but 24 minutes and 31 seconds into a 1 hour and 20 minute presentation about the wonder of Google Wave, my one and only question had failed to be answered. What’s in it for me? Maybe I wasn’t the target audience given that the video is taken from the May 2009, Google IO Technology Conference but these Google developers weren’t exactly being succinct.

They had shown me a few cool tricks and gimmicks that would make my life a little bit more convenient. But as yet nothing struck me as revolutionary. Granted I was only 24 minutes in. From a commercial point of view I had also begun to query where the money was going to made? Blah, blah, blah is where my mind goes from here and less than coincidently, that was also exactly what I was beginning to hear from the onscreen guys at Google. Just as had happened when Facebook launched and then Twitter after that.  Nothing struck me and while monetising them has remained a burning question, as the consumer has found their uses (rather than the developers presupposing their uses) the commercial viability and opportunity, and more general value, has become apparent. This isn’t to say Google Wave will necessarily be the next BIG thing and I hate to back a favourite (because who doesn’t love an underdog) but there are immediate benefits for various consumer groups and industries – serial bloggers and journalism to name just two. As well as these obvious benefits for various markets, once Google Wave has been released upon the general and global public, undoubtedly the consumer will find its own use for Google Wave just as the consumer defined the purpose and value of the aforementioned social media channels. What’s more, it does seem to have a nice ring to it – ‘wave’. Friendlier than email for sure.  But as the ever so clever Rasmussen brothers (the developers of Google Wave) unfortunately demonstrate there is no substitute for good ole fashioned oral communication skills. So while I look forward to waving hello, this is me saying goodbye.

Chris Mitchell

Last 5 posts by The Interns

• 19 years old, and way too smart. - July 2nd, 2010