How desirable a chatting tool does it make the Google Wave that it should have real-time communication – no typing a couple of lines and pressing Enter, but real-time communication? People used to the traditional “write and send” method of chatting, are going to be quite self-conscious having each letter they type go out in real time. It is the problem of real-time speech – if you make a mistake, how do you backtrack without losing face? Now, thanks to Google’s Wave, the problem comes to chat too. There is a lot to applaud in this feature, and a lot to berate. With real-time type-telecast, people can tell what you’re getting at even before you finish, and they can begin to reply, thus speeding up conversations (wasn’t that what the Telex did decades ago?). But it takes getting used to apparently, as lots of people find it intrusive that they can’t make one keystroke without broadcasting what they’re doing.
Live chats with more than one user can get quite complicated under regular circumstances; and Wave’s aim of trying to find a solution to this by providing a streamlined interface that brings e-mail, IM, encyclopedias, and other things all in one window,is a pretty useful one. But Wave tries to improve online communication to solve these problems in the way Vista tried to improve XP – by changing everything about the familiar interface everyone was used to. To begin with, everything on Wave has an unfamiliar name: conversations are called Waves, the messages contained therein are called Blips, and messages that are like mobile text messages, are called Pings. Everything about Wave, needs thumbing through the help manual or a video – even simple stuff like sending a message to someone.
You would think they would try to make things a little easier by at least cutting down on the frills; no such luck here. Google Wave is packed with widgets for games, maps and things that you would be hard-pressed to understand what to do with. And that is just the point. Why would you want to learn to do all this, when Google Wave doesn’t seem to really aim itself at a well-defined problem? What does Google Wave do better than Google Docs for example? Certainly, Wave is quick to respond to every command, and seems very well put together; now if only understand what it is put together to be.