I agree with you on this. Been playing with it in the dev preview and now in the released version and until I get people I know on there and reasons to discuss or collaborate then I don't see the value. The concept is excellent, the execution is excellent, I just don't think the product is what people are expecting.
- Keith Bennett
When I first saw the release video of Wave it was clear this wasn't something that would be for you to invite all your friends to. I'm surprised at your harsh review in such a fast manner -- you opened it up to the world of your "friends" to play in the sandbox -- but did you actually have a mission? You actually point out that this has great potential for group work. It's about...
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- Elaine Young, Ph.D
Writing off Wave at this point is a bit like walking into a hardware store, picking up a hammer, walking around the store looking for stuff to hit and declaring "Why would I ever want a hammer? This is a waste of time." For teams and workgroups looking to improve the way they communicate and collaborate, Wave might be a great tool. For others, not so much.
- Ken Sheppardson
Elaine: you are hoping for something more in depth? Come back in a month after things settle out and developers ship some real tools for it. Welcome to our real time world. Why do you assume that normal people will give ANY tool more than an hour before they decide whether it sucks or not?
- Robert Scoble
The amount of hype this thing got will NOT be realized by a collaboration scenario. I had this years ago with Ray Ozzie's tools. Geesh.
- Robert Scoble
Oh, I'm not arguing that it's over-hyped. That's the nature of the real time social media hype echo chamber we live in these days. :-) That's not to say it isn't a cool tool. BTW, I really miss Groove. :-(
- Ken Sheppardson
I won't believe for a second that Google created Wave to be anything less than an entrance into competition with Facebook for mass users. Google does one thing very well for mass usage, Search. The other things are great tools and have a base, but this was a Social Networking play, disguised as a collaboration tool. I think Robert is right, this is NEVER going to match the hype.
- Patrick Boegel
I think you're absolutely right, Robert. I got my invite, all excited, signed up, added a friend, and.... *fizzle*... it's chat, it's IM, it's a bad twitter client... I hope it will evolve into something worthwhile.
- Jan Ole Peek
I always understood wave as the next evolution of xmpp - something google envisaged when they first got their hands on jabber. Something distributed merging the features of instant messaging, forum and newsgroup. It was not aimed at twitter or facebook, it was more aimed at some of the live features of Notes and Groupwise and forums. PS: the hype it got is the same as every time google...
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- Joelle Nebbe (iphigenie)
I've been a wavesandbox user for months and today I got both my wave invite and as it just so happens I also got my threadsy invite. Suffice to say I'm much more excited about threadsy! Why? because it's actually helpful.
- Bob Stewart
It's clearly not a 1:1 replacement for email and its early yet. This platform is made for customization. As soon as the development community catches up with concern/demand then I think Wave will be far more refined and valuable as a productivity tool. I think it's way too early to say its overhyped but it certainly makes for a great blog title :) Have a great time out in HMB with Chase today.
- Jim Goldstein
How about that, you're absolutely right Robert.
- Peter Kruit
I think I mentioned a month ago that people were going to be overwhelmed by this and it may be too soon to launch to the public.
- Jesse Stay
This is one of those times where I'm happy to let the gang of 2000 beat it up before getting in.
- Stuart Miniman
You are in the gang of 2000. Sorry, Stu.
- Louis Gray
Imagine a Twitter network with five people on it, none of whom actually work on any of the same projects you need to finish this week.
- Daniel J. Pritchett
Am I the only one who has been puzzled when people started saying "this is gonna be the new facebook/twitter"? I watched the whole 1.5 hour demo video and that thought never crossed my mind, nor did using it with dozens upon dozens of people at a time. The only things I saw them demo was a variety of tasks between a handful of friends or colleagues. Robert's right, when you've got a ton...
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- brendan
I collaborate with others to actually do things. Yes, Wave is young, but damn! I see its potential and I declare it awesome.
- ‘-.-’ Tutivillus Grift
Google Wave passes the twitter test. Lots of folks didn't get twitter (and still don't) when it first appeared. GW will follow a similar trajectory..geek early adoption and later mass adoption. I like it that people don't quite get GW which means that people will use it in multiple ways, as they do twitter. I project that it will live up to the hype much like the iPhone.
- Jim Posner
Or it'll follow the FriendFeed curve: a few geeks will get it, use it, become dedicated to it, it'll never see mass adoption, then the engineers will get recruited to work on other projects and the technology will just get folded into other systems...
- Ken Sheppardson
My understanding is the intent was to re-invent email. So I see the gmail population eventually ending up on GW. Google as a rule has had few bombs. Certainly the GW platform will evolve (filters) to address some of the concerns Robert has.
- Jim Posner
interesting review, i will have to check it out for myself! twitter(at)locspoc
- Loc
Can't wait to see how the users evolve ways of using it that help to moderate the wave. Appreciate the fact that Robert and others (some of you) are sharing this experience and these diverse reactions.
- Holly Rae
Agreed, Scoble. I don't see this as a good friendfeed replacement anymore.
- Ahsan Ali aka. Slick
There is Etherpad and Zenbe ShareFlow. I would wait and see how GoogleWave evolves.
- Wins Fern
Nice to see you present some critical thoughts on this, and I must say that your comments seem very sensible! I would also like to point to services like Etherpad when it comes to real-time collaboration on documents, and I also think there seems to be (potentially) a lot of noise in Google Wave. It will be interesting to see though :-)
- Reidar
I haven't especially found Google Wave all that useful up until now. It would be better if you could at least receive email there while you were playing around with it. Until they have a mail-to-wave interface, I can't see most people migrating there.
- Justin Long
I'd like to see the speech Nixon would have delivered if we stranded HIM on the Moon.
- George Brickner
George: In a spacesuit? I know the speech if he wasn't in one!
- Fee501st
It's surprisingly (refreshingly?) secular.
- Paul Reynolds
Am I crazy or is Safire missing a possessive at the end of this? "For every human being...will know that there is some corner of another world that is forever mankind." That doesn't make a bit of sense to me.
- aldenoneil
"Tens of thousands of revelers pelted each other with tons of ripe tomatoes in a good-natured battle that filled the streets of a Spanish town with rivers of red pulp. Bunol's town hall estimated more than 40,000 people, some from as far away as Japan and Australia, took up arms Wednesday with 100 tons of tomatoes in the yearly food fight known as the "Tomatina," now in its 64th year. The event has its roots in a food fight between childhood friends and has become something of a calling card for Bunol, which is 25 miles (40 kilometers) north of Valencia on Spain's east coast. The hour-long battle is so popular that traffic into the town backed up nearly two miles (three kilometers) Wednesday morning."
- Kol Tregaskes
from Bookmarklet
Do you want to become smarter? There is nothing easier:) You just should eat more... smart foods. Yes! Everything is as simple as that. So, what's on the menu today?
- Mahdi Ebrahimi
from Bookmarklet
I think there might be a terminology problem here. Are they smart foods (modern/novel materials/foods)or super foods? According to the British Nutrition Foundation smart foods are classified as: * modified starch (eg instant dessert mix that uses cold milk) * genetically modified foods * anti-oxidants * modified enzymes, e.g. chymosin * probiotic yoghurts/drinks * meat analogues, eg...
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- Jonathan Tanner
Eating less stupid food couldn't hurt either.
- Dale
If transgenic foods are smart food i think organic food must be stupid foods:)
- Mahdi Ebrahimi
Sorry, I should have been a touch mor specific. By stupid food I was more referring to over-processed, ingredient-laden, prepared or instant food. But organic is also overrated. Just because a food claims to be organically grown that doesn't make it better. At least here in the states there are many loopholes to the organic labeling laws....
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- Dale
Absolutely stunning photos! Love the vibrant colours!
- Gurpreet
I read a study recently, (can't remember the citation now) that revealed that eating 1 cup of blueberries a day improves balance and proprioception, due to the particular blend of antioxidants in them and the way they interact with each other. Whereas regularly eating onions (for example), that also contain many antioxidants, improves memory. Random bit of interesting (to me anyway) trivia :)
- Gurpreet
so, so sad. I like(d) Friendfeed much more than facebook
- Francisco Kemeny
home run for FF.. Facebook will be able to give developers a treasure trove of data one thing that Twitter is dominating on right now. Twitter has a huge developer community but isn't managing that. Here FB is poised to be huge
- John Furrier
So classic that Robert has the first interview about this...Where's Louis? :)
- Anthony Farrior
How do they plan to mix the teenagers with the geeks?
- Jordi Soler
Amani: I am excited! Facebook has 800 employees and 300 million users. This makes both companies much more important.
- Robert Scoble
from iPhone
here was a comment on SiliconANGLE blog .. very funny .. "Hey, since we've copied almost every innovation you've had, guess you might as well play on the company softball team!"
- John Furrier
Nice strategic move - Interesting to see how this will integrate and looks in 12 months
- Alex Vermeule (@alexve)
to be honnest I was predicting google offer, then facebook preceed google on this, they are doing well, now rarding FF this is great, the sucess is to know when to pass to something else, the future will make the abtle wave, facebook rude for all geek it is time to code.
- abdellah
You rascal Robert, bet you had wind about FriendFeed and FaceBook merger before today? Yes? Have not used either SM apps. much UNTIL Twitter locked my account. May have been a fortunate mishap as it turns out. Getting to know the beauties of both apps. =)
- SashaKane
do you have a small amount of FriendFeed shares Robert?
- Torsten Eckert
NOOOOOOO. Damnit! I am praying that Facebook doesn't wall up Friendfeed. I was starting to build a site around Friendfeed :(
- beersage
beersage: as Facebook is trying to break their users into a more public world, I doubt that you really have anything to worry about there.
- guruvan (Rob Nelson)
Starting to listen to this now. Hoping you are right, Rob.
- beersage
I hope so to. But regardless, I think that it was in reality necessary for FriendFeed to sell to really put the technology in front of a sufficient number of eyeballs. Facebook is probably the best acquirer that FriendFeed could have. (I would have not felt the same had FF been acquired by Google)
- guruvan (Rob Nelson)
The thing with Friendfeed though is how I can share things outside of a 'wall.' I prominently feature the FF widget on my site. I'm just concerned of losing that capability as I was tinkering with delivering a new site w/ content primarily running through my Friendfeed account. I am to this day unable to do much outside of the wall. I am unable to subscribe to Fan Page updates in Google reader for instance. That is what concerns me about FB acquiring FF given my goals.
- beersage
Robert sounded quite breathless in that interview. Thanks Robert.
- Roberto Bonini
Wow! I'm in shock. I can't wait to hear this interview.
- Micah Wittman
from iPhone
This deal was about getting Paul and the team and nothing else
- Stephen Pickering
@stephan, are you serious? FB is buying a concept, a technoloie, a structure, a content and a user list
- abdellah
Unconvincing Paul Buchheit, the team is more exited of being part of bigger story - logical for them to move on
- patrickdh
now how could a team that left google resist under a unique perception system, where the leader vision is upon any thing
- abdellah
They want a way to turn their white pages into a yellow pages and the only guy on Earth who knows how to do it, is Paul
- Stephen Pickering
It was only about the technology and the people. Most people are on also FB anyway.
- James Myatt
My guess is that Paul got a tooooooooon of options and will soon be the No.2 guy at Facebook
- Stephen Pickering
Glossing over of that "short term" question by the FF boys. It just seems more about the individuals at FF than it does the users of FF. "Their (Facebook) long term goals" Nice interview, Robert!
- Melanie Reed
Well, it looks as if pass-through of FriendFeed Likes, Comments, etc. to Twitter is down. Will it be for good? Did Twitter do this in response to the acquisition? Or is it just a regular (though curiously timed) hiccup?
- Alex Schleber
this is why your own personal website is always more important than friendfeed, Twitter and all the rest. that's never going anywhere
- Terry O'Fee
from BuddyFeed
I must confess I thought this was photoshopped!
- Gordon Herd
It never ceases to amaze me how long it takes for things to percolate out into the media. I posted this Monday from someone who came across this in the daily mail who in turn got it off the AP wires probably on Sunday. So now we're, say 5-6 days out from the event that this took place at. And only now is it beginning to come up on "American Media" web pages. Somethings wrong when an...
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- Bluesun 2600
hello. to be honest, it was only luck that I came across this - I'm pretty slow when it comes to checking the current news sites/sources. being from the UK, I would also usually - as a matter of principle - never check anything related to the Daily Mail! cheers
- andrewb
Grasslands is pretty cool looking, but when I comment on a post, the comment field is hidden in the grass. :D
- Josh Haley
Nice job! These are some pretty spiffy themes. I would have commented earlier, but I was busy shooting ducks. I switched from Helvetica to Steampunk for now. I still want my old school monochrome monitor black screen and green text theme :P
- Ⓐ ☠ slayerboy ☠ Ⓐ
"old school monochrome monitor black screen and green text theme"? oh hellzyeah! can we also get an amber monochrome version?? they can be called "Hercules Green" and "Hercules Amber"! :D
- Joe Silence
oooooo...I like that...Hercules Green and Hercules Amber
- Ⓐ ☠ slayerboy ☠ Ⓐ
Grasslands has sun and clouds in Opera, but not in Firefox.
- Peter
Peter I see the sun and the clouds even in Firefox
- Niki Costantini
Cool, I like Orion and Duck Hunt is fun in a simple way... But I'm going to stick with Helvetica for now. Wouldn't mind a Blue variation of it.
- Grant Bierman
Cordys Cloud application had the cloud+grass combination since about a year, and now this theme of FriendFeed makes my page look like my applications ;) mighty nice ;)
- Ashish Tiwari
I'd like,, I really would like to have a full black and green theme, like old vintage computer from the '80's, but with the power of new technology. SO, please, make me happy...
- Francesco OC
annnnd back to helvetica.....steampunk is too slow on my netbook. really really want vintage computer "hercules green" or amber theme guys! :)
- Ⓐ ☠ slayerboy ☠ Ⓐ
yes mike! hercules green or amber theme! perfect...
- Francesco OC
Oh! I like Steampunk and I'm using it. Good job!
- trangphuong
Primeceno od strane George Carlina, "Things that put us together". Odlichan skech (:
- Mladen Srdić
to je psihoza. i ja je imam. "jesam posla il sam dosla?" za nas je najvaznije da imamo history and bookmarks
- Ej Dragana Dragana
Ja sam dugo imao tik da kad otvorim novi tab i razmišljam što ću s njim krenem ukucavat images.google.com iako nikad ne idem na taj url, kad i koristim google images radim to kroz search bar. Sad mi je ista stvar sa reader.google.com ali njega bar koristim.
- mzec
Remember when upgradability was one of the big selling points for Windows CE?
- Pat Rice
I refuse to buy another smartphone until they make one with a screen bigger than a tiny playing card. If I can't navigate the touch screen because it's too small, the OS doesn't matter.
- MarkCarras
Too little too late - There's better alternatives out there IMHO.
- Jim Connolly
These new TOS's should be challenged in court. Are they reasonable? I don't recall agreeing to the new TOS's at any time recently (Although I did agree to the original ones). This might make them un-enforceable. As one commentor said "Supposing they added a clause saying they could come to your house and cut down your shrubbery. Obviously this would be thrown out of court. So do the new terms breach "The Shrubbery" test?"
- Gary
Zee, having server trouble? Not loading now. .
- Simon Wicks
you know i think this story has broken the bloody site. Have got the powers that be looking into it
- Zee.
i'm not a fan of facebook. Not worked out why, just something about it. This is utter crap. Nothing really stopping them from making an iStockPhoto duplicate, selling your images. Of course this thing wouldn't stand in court, didn't agree to it for one.
- Stuart Evans
from twhirl
Seriously considering getting off Facebook. It's doing nothing for my business and only adds to my frustration. There's one more blogpost in it: My experience in getting off facebook.
- Henk de Kruyff
from twhirl
Not liking this .. will use FB less ,
- johnpiercy
i like more and more to NOT be registered on facebook :) i'm the only one among my friends and even familly (funny thing is that i'm definitively more geek & online addicted than them) who made this choice, for various reasons. Maybe even just for challenge, and i'm glad too. Day after day this is more & more fun not to register in this evil service who is directed by money, no more by...
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- TiTi
So they own all my tweets? since twitter goes to my facebook account. YAY! :(
- Patrick
from twhirl
I'm going to edit my signature to include 'property of facebook' :P
- Joe Dawson
Do they own my FriendFeed posts, my stuff on Flickr (It's Creative Commons licensed!), my Tweets, my last.fm profile content, and bunch of other random stuff that I've piped through Facebook in the past, now?
- Tyson Key
I thought this was common knowledge by now ?
- Bwana ☠
I'm scared to wonder why 3 people liked this...
- Outsanity
For its attractiveness Out! A picture is worth a 1000 words? Bring 'em to the mobile device ;p Never thought seeing a live one, but hey, social media requires it. Can't think I would do it with a laptop, on a cellphone it'd be effective. Can't think of me being more than the time needed finishing a post, shows a lot on what y'all may do while I'm typing ;p
- ElijahBailey-Zu of FF <0,
"A growing number of blogs are moving away from traditional blog layouts in favor of magazine-style themes; however, the layout and presentation of content has a major impact on visitors and there is no one-size-fits-all solution..."
- Anthony Citrano
Awww... I hope you catch his first steps on camera! :)
- Daynah
@Geoff, wow that's a memorable tweet. She is not sleeping through the night consistently yet. She is getting close, she can go about 6 hours without waking up, that's 3-4 nights a week currently.
- Mike Fruchter
Personally, I've been straying in this direction for a while and I think it's evident from an under-current in a number of my posts over recent months. I don't, therefore, think it's just a summer doldrums things but we'll see what happens later in the year.
- Colin Walker
Not at all!! If anything, as more people get exposed, immersed (addicted?), more people are connecting, technologies / services are advancing to be the newest/greatet (ie: micro-blogging -> micro-blogging w/ options - location based + multi-media, etc.), mobile + desktop services/software/sites seem to be intertwining, and technology companies in general seem to be shifting to a more consumer driven one. If anything, I'm more excited about the internet and technology than ever!! :)
- Mona Nomura
You're looking at wayyy too small a picture in that post. The people you are talking about are all tech bloggers. What you aren't looking at is the larger picture.A higher interest in technology and, new technologies are leaking into the mainstream. Maybe for the techies things are not as nice and shiny as they used to be but..for the rest of us social media is a "new frontier" that people are just beginning to explore.
- Candace
I don't know about this social media thing but EA has a lot more fun with its shiny objects.
- Robert Scoble
Depends on who you ask. For those in the echo chamber (or just with their ear against it), I'd say so. For the rest of the world, I think you'll find that social media was never so shiny to begin: they have FaceBook or MySpace and that's it.
- FFing Enigma (aka Tina)
Stupid: (wow, that sounds rude =|) Did you read Shey's recent blog post on the echo chamber? It was a really good piece. Read it here: http://www.sheysmith.com/2008... (Steven, sorry for hijacking your thread...)
- Mona Nomura
@Candace - as with most of my posts this is purely to raise a conversation on something that I was thinking about
- Steven Hodson
The only people that are getting jaded are the one that follow the same routine (online and offline) every day. Mix it up a little gang. It's healthy, and there's a whole new world here .... and Mona
- Charlie Anzman
I find it funny that all of you are throwing critques around ON social media.
- Robert Scoble
+1 to Charlie and @Scoble - Don't point out the irony! ...It's not as funny that way :(
- Candace
@Mona: Definitely not trying to be rude, I'm simply drawing off my experience with friends and family offline. They aren't tech people, but they are all web users and only a handful of them have anything to do with social media (and it's FB and MS). Even the tech people I deal with don't feel drawn to it.
- FFing Enigma (aka Tina)
Stupid Blogger: I heard EXACTLY the same thing said about personal computers in 1977.
- Robert Scoble
well maybe a shakedown coming up via increased competition to get rid of the non value adding ones....
- Marcel Ekkel
@Mona: reread & realized you weren't calling *me* rude. Doh! You can call me SB, or find my name which is hidden around here somewhere... To check my perspective, I looked over my FB profile: all but two friends are from my math & science magnet school. Other than one guy who actually works at Google (and you can't count him, he's in the chamber!), no one else seems all that involved in social media outside of FB.
- FFing Enigma (aka Tina)
@Scoble: Wouldn't you say, though, that the speed of adoption and adaptation have dramatically increased over the past 30+ years? What previously took 5-10 years to become 'mainstream' is now taking a year or three.
- FFing Enigma (aka Tina)
SB: I hear you, but IMHO, Facebook and Myspace are slowly breaking in the masses. New Facebook, upgraded Myspace, incorporation of new services, apps, etc., :) Oh, and the iPhone. The iPhone revolutionalized the American mobile market, regardless of how buggy / over-hyped it is.
- Mona Nomura
Stupid: absolutely. The world is going faster now.
- Robert Scoble
twitter just hit USA Today. I think it's just getting started for the 99% who aren't in the chamber.
- Morgan
@Scoble - if people have an issue with social media then, surely, social media itself is the perfect place to air those concerns as they are immediately placed in front of those who can do something about it. You wouldn't complain to an Apple customer service rep if you had a problem with McDonalds. I see no irony here.
- Colin Walker
from fftogo
Colin: you missed my point. If social media is so bad I'm sure there are alternatives where you could communicate your point of view more effectively, no? I guess I'm just getting tired of seeing all the social media talk coming through my reader and through FriendFeed today. Oh well, I know this storm will probably pass within a few hours. Even haters can't focus for very long lately. :-)
- Robert Scoble
ah excuse me Robert but no-one in this thread expressed any kind of "hater" speech .. and neither was my post anywhere close to being in that vein. So maybe clarify your assumption
- Steven Hodson
Steven: it wasn't this comment cluster or even your post I was talking about. There were a bunch of anti-social media sentiment that came through my reader tonight and I'm reacting to the group of things. Hater is probably too strong a word. Critic, or critical thought is probably more correct. "Uninteresting" is the word you used in your blog post. I guess I should have just said they were bored. I'm bored with this topic, so onward.
- Robert Scoble
i try to think of any online stuff w.r.t the real life (humans remain human even online). How has it been w/trad. media? We got newspapers then magazines then periodicalls then specialized magazines then specialized newspapers then what? perhaps one or more item? the rest is variations, improvements, derivations and AGGREGATIONS of those, right? Following those? yes, people get into new but there is saturation. So is it online. There is increase in following but the curve is saturating..
- Hayk H.
To echo Steven, I am certainly not a hater and have been a huge advocate of social media and its possibilities. With regards to other avenues, they may exist but would not be as effective in communicating directly with those involved. And besides, what's a blog for if not to have your say?
- Colin Walker
from fftogo
I'm all for mouthing off on a blog. :-) I'm just bored. I should have hid this cluster and went on with my life. :-)
- Robert Scoble
Social media age is about 3-4 years.Probably,it's the time of first crisis.
- Igor Poltavskiy
@Igor, I would rather call it a life cycle!
- Hayk H.
As a "newbie" to the social media scene, it hasn't lost it's luster for me. I started on FB just 4 months ago and I am just learning how to really get connected. I've gotten 20 friends and family to join FB and I have discussions with most of them daily. I think social media is still growing and will eventually be a part of everyone's online experience.
- Jonathan.Rivera
Steven, maybe you are seeing something similar that happens to people when they drink too much Coca Cola. It gets your sugar levels way up, puts you into hyper drive, but after a while the rush wears off and you slow down. You then either drink some more which leads to adjustments in your body that make you less hyper the more you drink. Or you do what is probably most healthy. Drink a coke when you are thirsty or really enjoy it, and stick to something healthier for the rest of the time.
- Alexander van Elsas
I am beginning to believe that a lot of the pro-bloggers/breaking news type of bloggers have been drinking too much coke ;-) There are really exciting things going on in this world. But you don't have to race to the next "new" fad to see that happening. You can find it all over the place ;-)
- Alexander van Elsas