GoogleWave leaves users high and dry
The internet’s newest technology fad has left users baffled.
Google Wave is the latest internet service aimed at new ways of communicating online. Describing itself as a ‘collaborative’ service, it resembles a souped-up instant messaging service that is capable of transferring and sharing images as well as text.
However, early users of the service are describing a system that is ‘‘confused’’ and ‘‘disjointed’’.
Instead of e-mailing or messaging someone, users create a ‘wave’ – a panel in which text and pictures can be typed or pasted. Instead of being based on one-to-one communication or open to all registered users, the creator of the wave can choose who to include in the discussion by dragging their contact symbol into the wave. Text and images appear in the wave discussion at the same time that they are typed by another participating Wave user.
The service also has a feature called Playback, which records the progress of a discussion between Wave participants. Playing back the recorded reel shows who typed what and how changes were made.
However, those who are included in each wave are not automatically notified (either bye -mail or text) that they are being made part of a discussion.
This makes it necessary to have the service on in the computer’s background at all times. The service also does not automatically synchronise with popular social networking services such as Facebook and Twitter, making it an alternative rather than a complimentary service.
It is also unclear when other Wave users are available for discussion or not. Highlighting the online or offline status of a fellow user is a standard feature of all instant messaging and online chat services.
Searching for other people who might have Wave accounts is difficult. Several attempts to find other users known to The Sunday Business Post failed. Finally, because it is presented
as a collaborative service, any participant of a wave can edit any part of the discussion, text or picture without leaving any trace of having done so. This makes it difficult to follow who has contributed to discussions.
The Wave service is currently in beta form, and is by invitation only.
