The problem is I just don’t buy into Google’s obsession with the browser. Wave has so much potential to kill IM and email. As a collaborative tool, especially, it’s quite impressive, though slow and buggy in its current iteration. I have no doubt Google will fix that.
What Google can’t fix is the fact that I’m not a complete nerd who sits around with a browser tab open at all times, checking every few minutes to see if anyone has made any updates to my waves.
This is exactly the same reason why I don’t run email in a browser window, either. Unless I have to for some strange reason. A separate email application gives me a simple and clear notification whenever a new email arrives. Even better, I get a notification on my iPhone when an email arrives, as well. So I don’t have to keep checking the page over and over again to figure out if there are any updates.
I wouldn’t dream of using the Twitter or Facebook web pages, either. I have excellent iPhone clients for both of those. (And a great desktop client for Twitter, as well, in Tweetie.) There’s no way I would have ever started using Twitter without a decent client app.
The same will most likely be true for me and Wave. Until someone comes up with a decent standalone app, one that notifies me of updates, has a companion iPhone app that syncs up as well, and maybe tosses in a few other bells an whistles, I’m afraid Wave will remain little more than a toy to play around with occasionally for me.
