Google Wave’s perfect storm

Google decided to open the doors of Google Wave  to even more people by giving all current users up to 25 new invites and sending an undisclosed number of  first generation invites. The objective is to reach the million usersmark  before year’s end. But will Google manage it?

This question could have sound as a lunacy eight weeks ago but the fact is that it makes a lot of  sense today. Eight weeks ago you could find people paying $60 for a invitation to get into the ultimate web 2.8575 craze. Now you can find people begging to get rid of their invitations and being met with the same indifference with which a cat looks at a human, most of the time.

I’m one of those that believes in Google Wave. I use Wave on a daily basis for professional projects and I have tried to bring in as many people as I can. I have tried and, mostly,  I have failed. Google Wave looks like a Ferrari with a Ford T1 engine under the red hood. As soon as you push the ignition button you notice it. If you are a mechanic you will enjoy fixing it, upgrading it, mending it, nurturing it until it performs like a Ferrari. If you are the usual Ferrari owner you just ditch it and go back to your Rolls-Royce. In  Google Wave’s case  the Rolls-Royce is e-mail and the majority of users,  that now have access to Google Wave,  are not mechanics.

But even the mechanics are getting pretty angry with the way things are developing: in the same way that is almost impossible to fix a engine with a legion of laymen around you giving tips (without having a clue) the Google Wave “geek” community is getting tired of having to deal with a lack of basic functions that would allow them to have more control over the content they are producing.

Since the new wave of invites was  sent out I have  reported more than 45 users to the “Spam and Abuse team”  (in less than 12h) and saw more than 60 public waves having its content deleted by newcomers. Trolls,  or just curious minds that find it interesting that you can delete content from a Wave,  are are changing the titles of public waves, altering content and playing Sudoku. (Yes, apparently the only way you can convince anyone to join Wave these days is to pitch them with the ability to play Sudoku with others inside a wave)

What does this mean for Google Wave?

Trouble. Google needs to have a minimum of active users to actually be able to test system stability before rolling out new features. The scalability of the whole systems needs to be tested and for that users are needed. Google Wave’s development team has been focusing on all things server side and not on implementing new shinny features and this is taking its toll. People are not using the service, don’t understand what all the hype was about and see little practical use for it. So Google keeps sending out invites to see if it can reach a sustainable number of active users. But when will it? Google Wave seems to be riding the perfect storm and not being able to deal with it.

The Milion user landmark

A quick search on Twitter for “Google Wave” and what you get are dozens of users offering their Google Wave invitations and no one seems to care. In the same way Twitter played a major role in building up the #GoogleWave hype it is also helping to create, only a few weeks later,  the idea that Google Wave is useless. If you spend 10m adding up all the invitations that are being offered you can reach the 1000 landmark. I sent out a tweet yesterday, at peak time, offering invitations and only 3 of my followers got back to me showing some interest. How long will they be on on the wave before they give up its a mystery to me. More importantly,  its a mystery to Google, that needs to have users on board to test the system and get feedback from them, as I said before.

Some find it ironic that Google the giant, with millions and millions of users all over the world, is having trouble reaching such a small number of active users for a product that was labeled revolutionary. Even if there are no official numbers available, those that think that the latest batch of invites was Google’s answer to a recent survey are not reading between the lines: Google needs users and the fact is that they are not joining in and, the ones that are, are alienating those that are trying to use it and share their knowledge with the community.

On other news if you need a Google Wave invite please get back at me immediately: the 129 invitations, I still have left to give away,  are making me look lame

And you? How many invites do you have left to give? When was the last time you went to Google Wave? Share your views on the comments please.

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Photo Credits: Angela Selvin via Flickr (CC by-nc)