When Google first announce wave back in the spring I was intrigued. It looked like it could change the way that things worked on the web. Of course having to wait after the announcement to get access just built the curiosity. I applied for access to the developers sandbox as soon as I could. I was surprised back in July when I was granted access.
My first thought when I sat in front of the interface was ‘Cool’ and I started to explore. What I found after a short time of exploring was a bit chaotic, there were a ton of waves most of which I couldn’t seem to join. So after being frustrated in the chaos I asked myself what could I build with this. I never came up with an answer and life never seemed to give me the time to really explore it so my account sat mostly unused. I logged in every few weeks to see what’s changed but that’s about it.
When the major expansion of users came round and the hype started to build I thought it might be time to give it another shot. When I first logged in the interface looked the same but there was less Waves. Just one from Dr. Wave explaining how things worked, one for Inviting people to join wave(these are more recommendations then invites though), and one with some sample gadgets that can be used in waves. After exploring the waves I had I was soon wondering what the point was. none of my friend have access yet and I don’t know when the ‘Recommended’ users will be given access.
It was then that I found the ‘with:public’ search that gives you access to all the public waves. With the search chaos returned, but this time I could interact with the waves, and though I did experience some trolls editing my wave in troll like ways I also found a few Waves where the conversation was flowing and I saw the power hidden in Wave. Just one catch you need to have people to talk with. So though I’m sure I will take the occasional swim in the Wave until some of my friends join it wont be a daily destination.
As I’ve been taking about my experiences and not really reviewing the service I thought I would share the a video I found on Lifehacker that explains at least part of what wave does:
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