What's all this hoopla around Google Wave's instant chat feature?

, posted: 12-Dec-2009 15:24

Everyone seems to be amazed that Google’s new Wave service has made instant messaging even more instant with correspondent’s messages appearing on your screen character by character as they type, in real time.

I don’t see what all the hype is over though!

Back in 1996, ICQ was the chat software of the day and all the way back then, it had a chat feature that let users read each others messages as they were typing them as opposed to writing a message and sending it. I loved it and I always wondered why newer chat programs didn’t have the same feature!

Now 14 years later, Google has implanted this same feature and everyone thinks it’s an amazing new feature that the world has never seen before....

I don't get it!


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Comment by Dratsab, on 12-Dec-2009 16:23 , user id: 26563)

You have to remember the internet, its user base and its funcionality/usability has expanded massively since 1996.  This feature is now all wrapped up in a whizzy interface.  For probably the majority of internet users, this *is* something new and exciting.


Comment by gcorgnet, on 14-Dec-2009 06:54 , user id: 51633)

A few differences between ICQ and Google Wave.
Wave all happens inside of a browser and it also works with 10+ users at the same time, if I remember correctly.


Author's note by simon14, on 14-Dec-2009 10:12 , user id: 8584)

ICQ's chat invitation feature worked with 10+ people also.


Comment by Jeffrey Salazar, on 18-Dec-2009 20:36 , user id: )

I think that Google Wave is getting hype because that is where Google is in it's lifecyle. Anything that Google does is hyped and oohed and aahed over. But the reality is that Google Wave is just another chat tool - and at this point a rather poor one at that. Remember the emporer has no clothes? It is a story that often applies in the computing world and this is just another case of it.


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Simon Paul
New Zealand


Welcome to Super Technology Man (STM) media group. I report on the facts and other such information, including hearsay, gossip and/or rumours. You can count of STM to provide you with honest, constructive opinions and news from an angle never seen before in NZ technology media. Catch me irregularly every week at unspecified times.


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