2009-08-12 Google Wave First Impressions
Google Wave Developer Preview
Google Wave
invitation
Google Wave might soon be as ordinary as Google Mail, and just as easy to sign up for. The invitation process for the beta was a bit tortuous, It did not allow me to pick a username with immediately feedback on availability of that username, but asked me to pick three usernames in order of preference. This strongly suggests a manual process. The sign-up process will surely become as automatic and immediate as every other online service.
first impressions: gear up
The very first impression I got after I signed on was this dialog box:
Using Chrome does not make a difference. Google Chrome includes Gears, but this is a not a request to install Gears. This is a request you get when Gears is already present; is this website allowed to use Gears, yes or no?
Google Wave depends on Google Gears. I guess you could try answering no, but I answered yes.
The beta release of Google Wave expect Google Gears version 0.5.21.0. That version was released the day Wave was introduced. Google Updates ensures automatic updates.
HTML 5
Google Wave does not just take advantage of Google Gears. It also takes
advantage of HTML 5. That is somewhat remarkable because HTML is not a standard
(yet).
Recent versions of major browsers already do include support for HTML 5. If you
are using some old browser, you may need to upgrade.
I have been trying Google Wave with Firefox 3.5.
Wave Sandbox
Google Wave is still in beta - not the infamous Google Mail kind of Beta
as a moniker of coolness, but in real Beta. The early release is not aimed at ordinary users, but
developers.
During this initial phase, our accounts are not on the Google Wave domain, but on the separate Wave Sandbox domain, where, well, pretty much anything might happen.
Getting a bunch of developers on a beta platform is not conducive to the stability of that platform. Google thought Wave was stable enough to let a small group of developers on, and I agree. I’ve not encountered any real problem yet, but I have read a disturbing statistic; a quarter of all Wave sessions ends in a crash. Huh.
So far, the worst I have experienced is a time-out.
first look
This is what Google Wave looked like when I first logged in.
The Google Wave Dev Preview logo
in the upper left corner reminds the user that this is a development sandbox. The upper right corner shows your logged in status, privacy settings
and the ability to log out.
This is very much like Google Mail and indeed any other web application that requires log in. There are little differences, such as Wave showing my first name instead of my username or email address.
user interface
navigation space
There is a navigation space on the left, a scrollable inbox in the middle, and space for a new wave on the right.
The navigation space on the left has navigation menu with a contact box below it. The navigation menu is not unlike that for email. I just signed up, so I have no Wave contacts yet.
inbox
The inbox shows up to three users for a wave, a bold title and a snippet of the text, much like Google Mail does (at least on the default settings).
There are a search box and menu along the top, some controls on the bottom and a scroll bar on the right side of the inbox. Also note that, somewhat surprising for someone without contact yet, that my inbox is already overflowing.
The signup process asked me about two groups. I opted to receive messages for one in GMail and for the other in Wave itself, and that must be what I am looking at.
familiar
So far, Google Wave may seem just some fancy mail and news reader, but the various symbols and logos in the inbox already hint that there is more to it.
updates
2011-07-16 Google Gears
Google ended the Gears project on 2011-03-1 to focus on HTML5 instead.
links
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