Google recently announced it’s latest communication innovation called Wave. Like any good student of social media I was first in line to watch the demo because I was interested in understanding how it might impact the world of marketing. I was stuck by the sophistication. flexibility, and brilliance of the platform(?) which combines e-mail with Google docs, blogs, instant messaging, threaded conversations, image sharing and much much more.  Quite frankly, the feature set is overwhelming and inspires the feeling that Google has created a tool that goes way beyond existing behaviors. And to take it one step further, they’re doing the entire project as an open-source initiative so developers can evolve it and extend it through a robust collection of APIs.

Questions

After watching the demo, it occurred to me that maybe I’ve reached that age at which new technologies start pulling away from you. On the other hand, it may just be that technology itself is extending beyond the capacity of human cognition. Is Google creating tools that exceed our ability to leverage them? Or, is it that their tools are so engineering driven that they lack the designed user experience that would allow us to easily build them into our behavioral patterns?

I think these are all valid questions and I look forward to watching how Wave plays out. As a marketer, I don’t think Wave is going to change the game, though I do think it will empower communities self-organize around their needs more quickly and dynamically. If Wave helps accelerate the adoption of community focused marketing, then it will be an important platform for marketers to explore (i.e how do campaigns behave within the interface?).

The demo is over an hour, but it’s an inspiring look into what’s next. I’d recommend skipping the 20 minute intro:

If you want to learn more, here’s a decent post from Mashable explaining Google Wave 101.