Under Review: Google's Wave Crashes
This week, we finally experienced Google Wave—and we hated it. Also under review: Facebook’s latest status update.
By Cord Jefferson and Becca Russell-Einhorn
October 30, 2009
Trust us, it’s nowhere near as smooth as its logo.
Google Wave
Widely Availabe: 2010
In a world in which people assume their Internet is broken when Google goes down, it’s comforting to see that the empire that evolved from everyone’s favorite search engine is not infallible. Google Wave stinks, friends.
Don’t fret if you’ve not yet received an invitation for Google’s newest so-called “personal communication and collaboration tool.” Getting an invite for Google Wave is akin to getting a wedding invite from your ex; such an event is destined to be awkward and clumsy, much like Google Wave itself.
With its robots (yes, really), waves, wavelets, and gadgets, even the service’s terminology is annoying, not to mention its actual interface. Depending on how many friends or colleagues you’ve got “waving” with you, your screen can quickly become cluttered.
I’ve also never encountered a computer platform that made me feel so insecure. Google Wave is as real as real-time gets, with other users able to see what you’re writing character by character. This means that, unlike with IM or Gchat, which allow you to reconsider spelling or bad jokes before you send them, on Google Wave, everyone can immediately see when you’re having trouble spelling “conscious.” In my experience, this tends to make Wave users guarded, counteracting the idea that the interface is the “next generation” of Internet communication.
Wave will be available to everyone sometime late next year. By then, let’s hope Google has fixed some of its more irritating quirks. If not, I’ll be making the conscious decision to stay on plain old Gchat.
5 out of 10 uncaught spelling errors.
-Cord Jefferson
Facebook: Now with even more blue-chip stalk options.
Live Feed vs. News Feed
Facebook
Updated: Oct. 26, 2009
“Where hath my News Feed gone!” thousands of college students were likely to exclaim this week as they stalked their middle school exes instead of writing their theses. As you may know by now, Facebook made yet another massive update over the weekend, when the News Feed got a makeover and split into a “News Feed” and a “Live Feed.”
For anyone who doesn’t understand the difference, I’ll break it down: Live Feed is similar to the old News Feed, but it updates faster and includes literally everything that happens with all of your friends on the ‘Book. The News Feed, on the other hand, is now based on an algorithm that takes into account which walls you write on the most and which statuses you “like” and comment on, thereby creating a feed of information about people you actually maintain contact with. And I totally love it. Or at least, I used to.
Weirdly enough, I was part of the large cohort that complained when the News Feed’s first incarnation was introduced. I joined the group, called Change Facebook Back To Normal!, which currently has about 1.5 million members. Did I want my 1,013 Facebook friends to know that I indeed was attending “Bra Bedazzling for Breast Cancer”? No, I wanted my bedazzling kept private. But later, I came to adore the News Feed. My favorite pastime became looking at and reading about people I never talked to anymore. Odd? Perhaps. Addictive? Absolutely. So the introduction of Live Feed, which is just a more comprehensive News Feed, means more time spent with my best procrastination tool.
I now never check my News Feed, which updates with stories about the people I already live with, eat meals with, talk to on the phone, and generally care about. I’m much more interested in my Live Feed—in seeing what people I never talk to are doing. MySpace might be for friends, but Facebook is definitely for stalkers.
8 out of 10 Things that will now keep you from ever being productive.
-Becca Russell-Einhorn
Cord Jefferson is an associate editor at Campus Progress. Becca Russell-Einhorn is a regular contributor to Campus Progress and a senior at Pomona College.
Social Bookmarking
--------
Comments
!
This is a really unfair review of Google Wave for so many reasons.
First of all, the product is in pre-beta phase. It’s nowhere near ready for the mainstream, which is why they’re limiting invitations to early adopters and testers. It’s supposed to be buggy and incomplete. That’s what we’re here for. If you reviewed ANY service or software at this phase in its development, it would score poorly.
Second, you jump on the “real time typing” feature. If you’d have researched the product, you’d have watched the two-hour video presentation in which they demonstrate the fact that in future releases, you can disable this feature with a single click.
Third, if your screen is cluttered, move some waves out of your inbox! Imagine an e-mail conversation with the same amount of people in it. Of COURSE huge waves will be cluttered. So would 10 people all hitting “reply to all” to an e-mail message.
Fourth, you’re completely missing the point if you’re comparing Wave to gchat. It’s not designed to replace google chat, it’s designed to create a better collaboration tool.
I know you need an edgy angle to your stories, but on this one, you were unnecessarily harsh and judgmental.
— Drew - Nov 5, 05:22 PM - #