6 ms·

Apache open sourcers welcome Google's unwanted Wave

82 points by _grrr 16y ago

adrianwaj 16y ago
I have been really happy with wave and would like to thank Google for releasing it. I am sure they use it internally, and will keep using it at Google in 2011. Although, they might have something better going on. Kind of reminds me of Google Answers that they closed down (I think prematurely,) which was in a segment that is and has become highly demanded.
l0nwlf 16y ago
Can't wait more to see the algorithm behind Google Wave. It may have failed(?) as a commercial product, but as a technical product it was kick-ass.
- JoachimSchipper 16y ago
  What algorithm in particular? I don't want to imply that getting everything to actually work is a small feat, but I wasn't aware of anything especially clever going on...
  - jankassens 16y ago
    The core algorithm is called "Operational Transformation". See http://www.codecommit.com/blog/java/understanding-and-applying-operational-transformation http://www.codecommit.com/blog/java/understanding-and-applyi...
    - JoachimSchipper 16y ago
      That's actually really cool, thanks!
    - mnemonik 16y ago
      I found this paper to be really helpful as well, which is linked to from that article: ftp://ftp.lambda.moo.mud.org/pub/MOO/papers/JupiterWin.ps
    - axod 16y ago
      Doesn't look like rocket science. Also using XML is just... hrmmm I'm not sure there's anything that technically impressive that came out of wave.
frb 16y ago
Wave didn't wash outside a few early adopters like Novel, SAP, and, er, the US Navy, and it looks like Google's still having trouble conveying exactly what Wave is and what it does. Just wondering what the plans of these early adopters are. You can't make money off something if nobody uses it. Isn't this why Google scrubbed the project in the first place? Don't get me wrong. I think that Wave is/was an interesting project and I tried really hard to use it, I really did. But somehow email/IM/whatever was always faster and more practical, in the sense that people responded to my requests. When using Wave I always had to remember people: "It's in Wave", "Haven't you checked Wave?"... I, and the other people I worked with, just couldn't get Wave into our workflow and someday we just forgot about it completely. It would be really interesting how the Navy uses Wave and for what. A kind of best-practice report on how to use Wave productively would be very interesting and motivating (at least for me). Tell me how to use it and I'm ready to give it another shot.
- _grrr 16y ago
  I was always very excited about wave, and was looking forward to a time when it was in common use. The possibility to unify all my communication around common threads makes sense, being able to use it as a replacement for chat & email - as it has properties of both - and pulling in external sources like documents, lists, PM tools, tickers ... However, Google definitely messed up the execution of it's release to the general public, it never got any critical mass and the concept was presented in too abstract a way for most people to get it and therefore try to use it, but I can see how a large organisation, such as those discussed above, could pick it up and deploy it internally with success.
  - frb 16y ago
    I don't think that it should have been marketed or seen as "the email killer" or as an replacement for email at all. Conceiving and positioning it as an enhancement to email and IM would hav been the better move. You're right, the unification of communication and integration of documents, etc. is a great feature, but for me it lacked of real integration with email and IM. E.g. Why couldn't I get notifications for my Gmail or Google Talk accounts. Why couldn't I push content (mails/messages/attachments) from my mail and IM accounts to Wave directly. So, you're right again, Google messed up the execution.
ThomPete 16y ago
Wave was a paradigm shift with too many paradigms. Had they integrated only the functionality you could find in etherpad into Gmail the story would have been very different IMHO.
- chrisbroadfoot 16y ago
  Into GMail? Why? Do you mean Docs? It's there.
  - ThomPete 16y ago
    Because gmail is a communication platform and that is basically what they wanted to make Wave into.
Marticus 16y ago
I can't help it, but it's my Wave in a box.

82 points by _grrr 16y ago

I have been really happy with wave and would like to thank Google for releasing it. I am sure they use it internally, and will keep using it at Google in 2011. Although, they might have something better going on. Kind of reminds me of Google Answers that they closed down (I think prematurely,) which was in a segment that is and has become highly demanded.

l0nwlf 16y ago

Can't wait more to see the algorithm behind Google Wave. It may have failed(?) as a commercial product, but as a technical product it was kick-ass.

JoachimSchipper 16y ago
What algorithm in particular? I don't want to imply that getting everything to actually work is a small feat, but I wasn't aware of anything especially clever going on...
- jankassens 16y ago
  The core algorithm is called "Operational Transformation". See http://www.codecommit.com/blog/java/understanding-and-applying-operational-transformation http://www.codecommit.com/blog/java/understanding-and-applyi...
  - JoachimSchipper 16y ago
    That's actually really cool, thanks!
  - mnemonik 16y ago
    I found this paper to be really helpful as well, which is linked to from that article: ftp://ftp.lambda.moo.mud.org/pub/MOO/papers/JupiterWin.ps
  - axod 16y ago
    Doesn't look like rocket science. Also using XML is just... hrmmm I'm not sure there's anything that technically impressive that came out of wave.

frb 16y ago

Wave didn't wash outside a few early adopters like Novel, SAP, and, er, the US Navy, and it looks like Google's still having trouble conveying exactly what Wave is and what it does. Just wondering what the plans of these early adopters are. You can't make money off something if nobody uses it. Isn't this why Google scrubbed the project in the first place? Don't get me wrong. I think that Wave is/was an interesting project and I tried really hard to use it, I really did. But somehow email/IM/whatever was always faster and more practical, in the sense that people responded to my requests. When using Wave I always had to remember people: "It's in Wave", "Haven't you checked Wave?"... I, and the other people I worked with, just couldn't get Wave into our workflow and someday we just forgot about it completely. It would be really interesting how the Navy uses Wave and for what. A kind of best-practice report on how to use Wave productively would be very interesting and motivating (at least for me). Tell me how to use it and I'm ready to give it another shot.

_grrr 16y ago
I was always very excited about wave, and was looking forward to a time when it was in common use. The possibility to unify all my communication around common threads makes sense, being able to use it as a replacement for chat & email - as it has properties of both - and pulling in external sources like documents, lists, PM tools, tickers ... However, Google definitely messed up the execution of it's release to the general public, it never got any critical mass and the concept was presented in too abstract a way for most people to get it and therefore try to use it, but I can see how a large organisation, such as those discussed above, could pick it up and deploy it internally with success.
- frb 16y ago
  I don't think that it should have been marketed or seen as "the email killer" or as an replacement for email at all. Conceiving and positioning it as an enhancement to email and IM would hav been the better move. You're right, the unification of communication and integration of documents, etc. is a great feature, but for me it lacked of real integration with email and IM. E.g. Why couldn't I get notifications for my Gmail or Google Talk accounts. Why couldn't I push content (mails/messages/attachments) from my mail and IM accounts to Wave directly. So, you're right again, Google messed up the execution.

ThomPete 16y ago

Wave was a paradigm shift with too many paradigms. Had they integrated only the functionality you could find in etherpad into Gmail the story would have been very different IMHO.

chrisbroadfoot 16y ago
Into GMail? Why? Do you mean Docs? It's there.
- ThomPete 16y ago
  Because gmail is a communication platform and that is basically what they wanted to make Wave into.

Marticus 16y ago

I can't help it, but it's my Wave in a box.