Google Wave Now Open To All

tonyfugere writes "After a year of testing by invitation only, Google Wave has been opened to the public. From what I have seen, it looks like it could be beneficial for documenting brainstorming sessions beyond simple instant messaging protocols." (Google Wave is "also great for entertaining the masses," says tonyfugere, who links to the slightly NSFW demonstration below.)

Comments

My best fit for Wave;

[B5_geek]

IMHO, the best niche that Wave can fill is by replacing message boards. By merging the IRC/Email/newsgroup/BBS concept it makes it perfect for following threads of conversations, starting new discussions, replying privately to one or two individuals, embedding images and/or videos.

I would gladly donate my left kidney if all my favorite forums/groups switched over to Wave.

Re:My best fit for Wave;

[Brandee07]

My best use for Wave: FAQs.

It's honestly my only use for wave, but it's a good one. Someone asks a question, someone else answers, someone else corrects the answer, someone else provides links to citations.

An example, the wave I manage: https://wave.google.com/wave/waveref/googlewave.com/w+N0MhqpVgB

Active discussions require a very active moderator to keep the wave from getting so large as to die the slow death of lag. Most collaborative documents are better handled in Google Docs. Random "which do you like best" polls should be purged from the internet in general.

Re:Privacy

[nacturation]

I just opted out as soon as possible, given Google's stance on privacy issues.

I opted in as soon as possible, given Google's stance on privacy issues.

(My comment is as meaningless as yours if you're not going to elaborate at least a little.)

Been using it for months

[Ngarrang]

I have been using Google Wave for months now. It works well once you figure out how to use it and for what you can use it effectively. I have been using it to collaborate with fellow musicians. In real-time, we hammer out lyrics, instruments parts, ideas, etc. Record something, most the MP3, share the bits that way, and the guy that is the best with the mixing software does the final mixes, shares the results. It has been fast and effective.

Re:Surf's Up!

[zwei2stein]

Obligatory version of video that is actually cool: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HePWBNcugf8&feature=related

Re:Privacy

[BitZtream]

You can turn off the advertising on the web interface as well, just go into your settings and turn it off.

Its optional, and on by default, its also so unintrusive that I actually turned it back on just because occasionally I'll see something I actually care to learn about and I'd rather they get some occasional cash for letting me use their services for free.

You do realize that if you never give them any incentive to give you the free service they will eventually stop giving it to you ... right?

Just a wiki

[tbird20d]

Is it just me, or is Wave just a fancy wiki?

Re:People are using it?

[Anonymous Coward]

When the invites passed through all my friends and I we had a frenzied afternoon of waving, the majority of which involved erasing what the previous person had written and changing it to something witty and insightful like "I LIKE WILLIES".

Then the wave started to gobble several hundred megs of RAM to even open, and well. That was the end of that.