Google Wave will change everything.
By Jeremy Harrison
September 17, 2009
My first email address was in college, on a little monochrome terminal where students would read and write email messages. At that time email was a trendy new thing, and if you asked somebody if they used it, odds were they would say no.
Today, everybody uses email, and it's revolutionized the way we communicate.
You maybe haven't heard about it yet, but Google is about to release something that has the potential to once again revolutionize the way we communicate.
The product is called Google Wave.
I recently spent an hour watching a video of Google's pre-release demo, which was shared with a summit of developers earlier this year. After thinking through the implications of Google Wave, I believe they are creating something significant. Assuming the initial launch creates no catastrophic problems, the Wave will become the most world-altering innovation since email.
It won't catch on immediately. And with Google's open-source approach to the product, you may not even hear it referred to as a "wave." But at a minimum, you will see significant improvements with how you communicate with other people electronically.
To learn more about what's coming, take a look at this video:
I enjoy checking your blog periodically; it is quite educational!
Your post on Twitter helped me to see the potential value in that with my business; unfortunately, I run into a lot of people who just don't seem to see the value in such things as e-mail, internet "groups", twitter, facebook, etc.
They say that a full 25% of Ohioans don't do internet at all and as near as I can tell, that figure is probably low for Ashland County. ( http://www.cleveland.com/business/index.ssf/2009/06/154000_more_ohioans_have_acces.html ).
I find that 25% statistic hard to believe, and seemingly high. My 86-year old grandmother is a great example. She has been using email for quite a few years now, and I was amazed to find out last week that she now even has a Facebook account! :) This is the same grandma who has been married more than 60 years and spent her life on the family farm in rural Ohio. Yet she and all the friends in her card club are posting digital photos on Facebook and sending instant messages.
Is grandma the exception? I don't think so, not based upon the people I encounter every week.
Even if the 25% is accurate, it's probably a safe bet to assume that this 25% segment is not very likely to be your prospective customers anyway.
That said, I think sites like Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn are merely tactics to accomplish much bigger marketing strategies. I see a lot of people dump way too much of their valuable time into using these tools, neglecting more traditional marketing strategies that are still critically important. So I think blending a few unproven, new marketing tactics with proven, more traditional tactics is key.
I appreciate you reading the blog, and appreciate your comments!