Google Wave – I want an elevator pitch!

Today it happened again: Google changed the way we see the universe, communication, ourselves, each others and the pedobear! That is, soon we start seeing these things in waves.

As much as I really want to see the universe from a different angle, I’m afraid it changes only the lifes of a minority. It’s a good and a big idea, but maybe the fact that the introduction video has the length of a Hollywood movie, is a sign? Maybe it’s just a bit too big, don’t you think? I want to have all my friends in waves and not just the nerds, so please, don’t scare them.

As much as I would like MSN to be history, I can’t see the world really changing until these means of communication are used by at least 50% of the humanity… And I really don’t see people who already have a difficult time writing e-mails and SMSs taking part in my waves, as handy and cool as they might be. The reason? They feel overwhelmed… Some dude called Mitchell Kapor once said that “Getting information from the Internet is like drinking from a fire hydrant!” When it comes to Google Wave, it looks like a waterfall, so I don’t see many people taking a sip. Knowing people, most of us are too lazy or have a real job…

Google should rethink their elevator pitch. That is when your idea is so clear that you can explain it during an elevator ride. Usually that’s like 30 seconds, not 80 minutes! I feel pity for those people who are stuck in an elevator for the entire lenght of that brief introduction. Hope they have spare oxygen…

With Google Wave, I see the internet-aware people excited and getting the kicks out of it, while the not-that-much-aware people are left cold, so the gap between the “estates of the cyber realm” will most likely grow even further. I would prefer doing something to get those old-fashioned offline people with us to this new dimension, instead of just scaring them away with even more powerful fire hydrants. And all those people who use Internet Explorer (sorry for the accurate generalization) don’t even want to understand, but rather do something more important. Internet should not be scary and overwhelming, but rather the welcoming and natural continuation for the physical world that it is. That’s when the world really changes.

Let’s hope it’s a step that needs to be taken, and ten years from now, also the IE people are catching up to where the nerds are now. I mean, more than ten years ago, most people considered e-mail to be nerdy. Now even my neighbour’s dog has one, and there’s nothing special about it. Maybe Google thinks that they really don’t need to push the IE people to the new, but they will get it eventually anyway. I would still prefer Google helping them with the start.

Yes, you’re correct. I never watched the presentation. Instead, I did my job and visited the library. And now it’s Friday night so don’t expect me to watch that now!

Tags: Google Wave