For Pete's Sake

Look at our Google style 'W'

I must admit that I’m pretty late to this party. In fact it was someone at Taizé who pointed me in it’s direction. What I’m talking about is Google Wave, the big thing Google announced before Chrome OS. In simple terms it’s Google’s way of attempting to re-work how we and the Internet work. In the presentation video you can watch (which is quite long) the first thing they point out is Internet communications via e-mail or chat were digital ways of copying what we did in analogue. It was also pointed out that as the Internet has matured nothing has changed as the technologies are largely stayed the same.

So the clever people at Google have put forth Google Wave as the new way of communicating on the web. The main thing is that a lot of it is real time. You can create a “wave” and send it to a friend, they can reply to that and if you’re online it would show up real time. You can also reply at any point in the message so you can reply to specific parts. The real-time element means if both on line it sort of like chat however if one is offline it’s very much like e-mail. At the same time you can then include someone else on the wave and they can see all or just part of the full wave. You can also include your Blogger account as a recipient and post to your blog. Then if people reply they then show up in your wave account and you can reply there without going to your blog.

It’s this central hub aspect of Google Wave that I like. I comment on a few blogs as well as things like Twitter and Facebook. If the Wave API was include in all these services it would be fantastic. One central location where I can reply to any message I receive in the online world and thanks to Wave it’s not a far fetched idea. However one wonders how this will relate to those who want to Wave but don’t want to use a Googlemail account. I mean I have a gmail account and use it for things like calendar and groups but I don’t use it as my main e-mail account. Instead I use my e-mail attached to this domain and if I wanted to use Google Wave I’d want to use it with this account as it’s the one all my friends know and I use it on many different things. Now Google Wave is open source but I doubt they’d let anyone use it anywhere else as it uses a central server (more cloud stuff) so it won’t move from Google’s house.

So where would that leave me? I could set up a set of forwarders and the like so everything ends up at Google but that’s too much hassle. I could also tell people from henceforth to e-mail my gmail account but I’d rather not do that either. Yes I’m being a bit of a stick in the mud but I bought this domain with the sole purpose of giving me a place to blog, showcase my photos and to have an e-mail address that was more personal. While Google Wave is fascinating I won’t be abandoning ship on my e-mail here just to use it. No I think in the end I will Wave but in a limited capacity perhaps just to see what it’s like, test it’s features and see what cool stuff they’ll impliment between now and release. I may be suprised and they will have though of a way around my issue but I doubt it. However, I will say that if you’re a sole gmail user or happy to move your mail to it then by all accounts do so as Google Wave looks awesome and really is a cool new way to interact with the web.

Looking back and thinking about last week I found that I’m less active on the Internet than I used to be. I then started to wonder why? Roll back 9 years or so when I was at college I was in chat rooms most of my spare time. In fact, I was an MSN chat room moderator for a while. I was also active in forums, online gaming clans as well as jumping in and getting active in Dubit which was a Habbo Hotel style chat place but was based in Leeds near where I lived. I wrote articles to do with online gaming; I was immersed in the online offerings that the Internet gave. Fast forward to now and other than twitter, my blog and Football Manager Live I’m pretty inactive in most places.

Take Facebook, yes I’m on there but I visit it perhaps daily for one or two days then not again for a week or so. Or MySpace, created an account, haven’t used it for probably well over a year. I can say this about many forums, websites and even chat itself (both IRC and MSN) – they interest me less and less. If I was to analyse the cause or a reason I would say that when I was at college I had moved to yet another new town and all the friends I made at college lived elsewhere. I didn’t drive so I could only communicate with them online or via phone and it was more convenient to do it by chat etc as I had the PC in my room. It was heavily used when I got together with Cati for obvious reasons. Now however I live with Cati, I know many people in the city I live in and if I want to visit friends who live further afield I drive. Not only that I prefer a phone call if I want to catch up. Yes I know I could use Skype (and I do when I parents are in France as it’s cheaper) but not everyone I know is on there and I get free minutes on my mobile.

I still use the Internet a lot but as last week showed I can easily go without. There are people I know who are constantly online and updating their status or chatting. I’m not saying that it’s a bad thing because as far as I know I don’t think any of them are massive addicts. However at the same time it brings up the current discussions that we as a race are becoming less social beings. The advent of online communications means that we send each other messages on Facebook than say call; or send an e-mail than write a letter, an art they say, is dying. Some would say that this isn’t a bad thing I mean an e-mail gets there instantly and, as long as your recipients net connection is up they receive it. Normal mail is at the mercy of us mere humans prone to losing the odd letter and such. At the same time though I really enjoy the more personal feel of a letter and they say you can learn a lot about a person from their handwriting – maybe that’s why people prefer e-mail ;) Similar arguments can be said for forums, chat clients and so on.

Their replacement of what were normal human interactions have good and bad points. It makes keeping in touch over vast distances easy, convenient and cheap. At the same time however they are pulling us away from doing what is natural and that is interacting, socialising and well, being human. I’m not trying to say the Internet is bad or that anyone should stop using it to keep in touch, far from it. What I am saying is perhaps find a balance write a letter sometime instead of an e-mail or meet up with a friend in person rather than wait till they come on MSN. Like most things in life it’s good in moderation but when taken to excess it becomes detrimental.

Are you an Internet addict or is there no such thing? Or all in all am I just talking twaddle?