Balcom Agency

One of the biggest complaints I get in the interactive space is "There's too much for me to keep up with!" Of course. You've got email, your Twitter account, LinkedIn, Facebook, Flickr, blogs, the list goes on and on. I agree, and I believe Google Wave will change a lot of that.

The internet, as connected as it's supposed to be, isn't very connected. Imagine if you had your own real time "dashboard" that allowed you to keep up with everything. While the idea seems simple, it's ingenious. The video is worth the watch (at least the first 25 mins) to get the point, but soon you'll see how revolutionary the idea is.

Not only does Wave connect everything, it will also change email. Email is a very antiquated system designed before the internet even existed, and it needs some change. In Wave, it transforms emails into a dynamic, real-time environment that is track-able and easy to use. It's hard to explain in words, but watch the video.

Wave is completely open source, meaning anyone can improve it and develop on it.

So, why is Google doing this? Their biggest slam in the past couple of months was regarding Twitter and their real-time search capabilities. Pundits have argued Google doesn't have a solution. With Wave, they do and it will blow Twitter away. Everything in Wave is real-time, and therefore Google will have access to everything in real-time (email, "tweets," photos, blog comments, etc.). Once they have that, you better bet your bottom dollar they will use it for advertising. It will be pretty powerful.

I still think Google Wave has a couple of big obstacles:

1. It relies on HTML5 - which isn't widely available, yet. Hopefully this will force users to get off of Internet Explorer (especially 6), but it might be a stretch for some corporations.
2. It's web-based - some individuals and corporations can't imagine why you'd want anything web based and it can be a tough sell.
3. It's a new form of communication - Introducing a new way to communicate is never easy, especially when you are trying to change the way email works. It's going to work for those where everyone is using it, but I have a hard time imagining some of our clients adopting.

I'm excited. I think this is a great, next step in the web. I'll be signing up as soon as I can.

By the way, our very own John Robinson has already signed up for a developer account. If you want a head start on development on the next hot platform, let me know.