Some impressions of Google Wave

There is no doubt that we have a potential breakthrough in use of the Internet with Google Wave.

Having used the Wave for a few weeks, I am impressed. But my enthusiastic reception is tempered by the fact that things may not pan out the way I expect.

The wave is a more efficient combo of twitter, email and collaboration tool, of that there is no doubt and has been mentioned ad nausea on many reviews of Google Wave. It simply need to achieve critical mass to succeed.

But the most appealing, and important aspect of the Wave, in my opinion, is that it allows anyone to develop add-ons for it. These add-ons take the form of Robots and Gadgets and can readily be developed by anyone with a modicum of programming experience. What's more, all the back-end running of such software developed can be hosted on Google App Engine framework. This includes persistence of data. The development resources cost is carried by Google who is making its framework available. In simple terms, it is relatively easy to develop software for Google Wave and it all is hosted and stored in the Cloud.

What will make the wave a success, or not, is how the add-ons development will be taken up. To-date the uptake rate has been disappointing but there may be reasons for this. It is, after all, a pre beta release and things are still a bit unstable. In my experience, things are too unstable to warrant serious development work. I am keeping my eyes open and I have played with the entire development cycle tools, including deployment. It is all relatively easy. At the end of it all is the potential to monetise any development. This should be the clincher.

I have a few Google Wave invites which I am prepared to share with developers. Send me an e-mail, and give me some idea of the development you would like to do. First come, first served! Five invites still available.