I think the problem was the learning curve. It didn't have an easy physical analogue that people could relate to (as email does), so if one person on your team wasn't living the web 2.0 zeitgeist it wasn't going to work.
But then I didn't play with it for more than about ten minutes. So I'm really just guessing here.
Possibly. I could see how to use it as a mailing list, a feed, or an IM or email conversation. I could sort of see how to use it to collaborate on a document (although unlike Google Docs, the result wouldn't be the actual document, it would be the content of the document that might then need to be translated into a sensible format). I couldn't see how to use it as a BBS / forums system, although it might be possible. I also couldn't really see how to make it do anything Google doesn't already provide elsewhere, although I'm sure there are *some* innovative widgets and robots
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I use Wave quite a lot. Predictably I don't agree with any of the prevailing theories.
Wave has a big problem that Google haven't talked about. In the early months after its release, whatever system they were using for handling multiple simultaneous editors just wasn't working. Some clients would crash (although I never saw that) but as time went on it became more and more often necessary to refresh the page. Google then fixed this, but the fix caused typed characters to appear and a rate of about 3-4 per second. So evidently this wasn't just a bugfix. Whatever they were doing initially was fundamentally unsound in some way.
3-4 chars per second? So if I type 50 words, you might as well go and do something else while you're waiting for it to arrive. I'm not sure that fixes "simultaneous" editing...
Foursquare is a sandbox game. It solves the problem, "The plot of my daily commute is way too linear, but I've been conditioned by modern society never to do anything unless I get some kind of codified recognition for it
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Foursquare seems obvious on second thoughts from the supply side... lets send offers and deals for regulars to my establishment. On the consumer side, I have better things to do than record every place I go to some third party (to my self, much more... I rather like the GPS tagging app on my Android Phone).
I never use Buzz either. I just can't be arsed to turn it off. Google reader does the same for me, so I use that.
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But then I didn't play with it for more than about ten minutes. So I'm really just guessing here.
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Since those giddy first two days after I got in, I mean...
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Wave has a big problem that Google haven't talked about. In the early months after its release, whatever system they were using for handling multiple simultaneous editors just wasn't working. Some clients would crash (although I never saw that) but as time went on it became more and more often necessary to refresh the page. Google then fixed this, but the fix caused typed characters to appear and a rate of about 3-4 per second. So evidently this wasn't just a bugfix. Whatever they were doing initially was fundamentally unsound in some way.
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I wish they'd write about the problem, but evidently it's too corporately embarassing to discuss.
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Lewis Black.
As with company, so with applications. If your app can't tell me what problem you are solving/benefit you give, in one sentence, it's a crappy app.
See, for example, foursquare.
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Solves the problem that it's awkward burgling people's homes if you can't be sure they're out.
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I never use Buzz either. I just can't be arsed to turn it off. Google reader does the same for me, so I use that.
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