Monday, January 4, 2010

Time to Wave Goodbye to Google?

Google, a company with omnipotent brand powers and an unrivalled status in the digital sphere, has been positioned as a ‘leader’ for so long, its foray into the social media scene was inevitable, not to mention anticipated. But am I the only one who is, well, rather disappointed?

It seems that only a few months ago, the digital universe was filled with a cacophony of virtual shrieks, as digital geeks (myself included) announced that they had received their prestigious Google Wave invites. Come January 2010 however, and it seems that the fanfare surrounding ‘the Wave’ has declined almost as quickly as a certain golfer’s career.

Let’s not beat around the bush – Google’s social media venture, so far, has failed.

Google has previously built its incredible success on creating unrivalled solutions to people’s needs: search, analytics, online advertising. What the company didn’t bargain for with Google Wave however, is the fact that people’s social media needs are already extremely well-met by the plethora of platforms currently out there.

Sure, Wave is a nice concept – a real-time communications platform that ties up emails, instant messaging, file sharing, collaborative working and networking. But many of these needs are already provided for through other channels such as Skype, LinkedIn and, contrary to early doubters, Twitter.

Another problem faced by Google Wave is that social media is by its inherent name, social. We may have enjoyed a feeling of superiority and prestige upon receipt of that longed-for Wave invite; however this soon dissipated upon realisation that we arrived in a vast empty chasm with no-one to talk to!

Don’t get me wrong – it’s still early days for Google Wave, and the company no doubt has a wealth of further digital talent it can throw at the platform, but will they have an audience left to market to? Social media is only just beginning, but if Google is to have its slice of the market, its time would be better spent focusing on needs that aren’t currently met yet.

Am I alone in this sentiment? Can anyone dismiss this argument and champion Google Wave?

2 comments:

  1. Interesting view. But I don't believe that Wave was designed as a social media foray, Google already did that with Orkut. Wave on the other hand was designed as a collaboration tool that could replace email. I could see someone in your line of work being able to use a tool like wave very powerfully, saving time and money making working with your customers easier. I agree with some of your points like the empty channel. I took a while to get some freinds on there and the topics we have waved on have been pretty arbitrary.

    Perhaps we could hook up on wave and collaborate on some thing.

    Cheers

    Nealle.

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  2. My gut feel is that Wave is here to stay. Just wait until developers exploit the possibilities and start developing Gadgets.

    Currently the big SNSes do not really integrate. Yes they make use of API's to send data back and forth but Wave could bring them together completely.

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