I would like to first state that I fully understand Google Wave is currently in developer state and that the next evolution is a limited beta. So an article about what is wrong with Google Wave is probably premature. Also, the title is a little misleading. A more fitting title might have been”5 Things that Google Needs to Address Before Google Wave is Officially Released”. But that would have been too long and certainly not snappy enough to draw your attention this way. So we dedcied to go with a title a little more controversial. Regardless, now that you’re here let’s get down to business about the 5 things that Google needs to address before Google Wave is officially released.
Now we understand that it could be awhile before one can actually review, and properly critique the officially released version of Google Wave. However, I think it is fair to raise a few issues that, if not addressed, could present problems for wide-spread acceptance of Google Wave to the masses.
1. Security – This is a huge issue. The Google Wave model sees many public Wave servers being required in order for “Wave” to work as envisioned. Google needs to better explain this concept in terms of security, I.E. how independent public servers will be validated or “trusted” and/or “blacklisted”. There is no mention in any Google documentation that I have seen on this point or do they indicate the requirement for domain certificates in the architecture. It seems that it is all left to XMPP server certificates. I am not convinced that this will be all that is required. For instance a “rouge” server could easily be blacklisted but that would be after how much damage is done? After how much information is captured? I am not saying that Google has to take the Apple approach and that all Wave servers must be blessed by Google. But, something needs to be done. In Apple’s defense the iPhone experience, to this point, has been a clean and painless experience that is both virus and spam free (not to mention everything works the way you expect it too). I am not saying that Google does not have plan or architecture to address the security issues. But, it does need to stress this and concentrate on it going forward. I need to know that importing a gadget or robot or using other public servers will be a safe and secure experience. Moreover, if you are familiar with the Android experience you see that you can implement an app to work in many ways and use many different buttons, etc. Again, I am not advocating the Apple approach, but I am not fully convinced that things being wide-open is a good idea either.
2. Spammers – This could have been part of the above security paragraph but I thought it deserved its own special attention. Non of the other social networks have adequately addressed the spam problem. Moreover, I will also say that neither has e-mail or , for that matter, regular mail. It is a huge, huge, huge problem that really takes away from the user experience. “Wave”, at least public Wave implementation anyway, needs to speak to this. Google needs to articulate how it will deal with spammers; those same spammers who are already working on how they can exploit this technology. It will not be good enough to assume this away to “User” authorization. If this technology gets taken over by the “spammers” it will not even get out of the gate. I think weary users will turn their back on it “en masse”.
3. Replacement or Evolution to Gmail/Google Docs – There are persistent rumors that one hears among the blogging technorati that Google Wave is actually a replacement (or evolution) of Gmail & Google Docs and just about any other Google product. Just type my heading for this paragraph into the Google search engine (the only product not mentioned as a being replaced actually) and you will get a taste of what I mean. Now, while I and many of the technorati may embrace this evolution (or replacement) I am not convinced that the great masses would feel the same way. Just about everyone I know has Gmail. Wave is a huge leap from what is offered with conventional e-mail. There would need to be an obvious transition phase and it would also require the above two paragraphs have already been addressed because many people use there Gmail account for business. I could not have my business e-mail overtaken by spammers or pose a serious security threat to clients. The rumors persist, Google needs to address those rumors.
4. Integration with MS Office – Like it or not folks MS Office is the business king. All hail the king! If you don’t, prepare to suffer the wrath of the business client. I.E. you will not be adopted. One could easily envision an integration between Google Docs and Google Wave. One could also easily envision how Google Wave could be a great business collaboration solution for business. The problem comes when you look at what business is using to work on their documents. They predominately use MS Office, Forrester reports that MS Office is in use by 92% of businesses while 3.3% use Google Docs. So, if I own a business, Google Wave looks very promising to me, as a collaboration tool. But, if I have to change from the office suite I currently use and am very comfortable with, have my folks trained on, have support in place for, etc, etc. I start to become reluctant to a big whole-scale change. However, if I get to use all my same tools as before but now have more capability, that becomes attractive. The solution here is that the Google Wave Enterprise model cannot rely on business changing there current suite of office tools. Google Wave must embrace the use of those tools and enhance that experience.
5. Enterprise Server Side Installation – Of all the applications that Google has released in the past few years, Google Wave is the one that has the greatest promise for wide-spread business implementation. To that end, Google needs to stress this! Google needs to talk about providing Enterprise Server Certification. Business will want to send folks on a course(s) and get back somebody who will be able to set-up and support the Wave Server. It will not be enough to rely on word-of-mouth, do-it-yourself or the great “Open Source” utopia. Google needs to be out in front of this and start thinking about giving courses offering this type of certification by Nov of this this year (2009). It must be aggressive and ensure that being labelled an authorized (or official) Google Wave Enterprise Server Engineer (WESE) means something, or others will define it for them and this then risks the product becoming less trusted. Business does not like anything that seems sketchy. Once Google defines the WESE certification it can then look to at certifying WESE providers. Again, Google should get out in front and define what it takes to be an authorized WESE certification provider.
So there you have it, my 5 things that I think Google needs to address before Google Wave is officially released. I think the real power of Google Wave lies with business, so it is no wonder that these all address concerns businesses would have. Any business looking at implementing this technology would have to know that it is secure, will be free from spammers, will integrate with there current Office tools and that they have the right qualified folks to install and support this new technology. I think Google still has time, but I will be listening very closely to how and when Google decides to start answering these questions. I am sure the good folks out there can think of many other things Google must address and you are welcomed to opine below in the comments.
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