Google Wave 1st Impressions

As some know I had some Google Wave invitations to give out, if they want to seed it, 8 is not enough.

I gave them ALL out within seconds on Twitter.

So why is everyone going crazy for it? Initially it was hard to tell because it did nothing.
Contacts didn't work properly so you could only talk to yourself. Sort of like when you joined Twitter then stopped using it.

Now after a few days, they got Contacts working and my 4,000 names I dumped in finally are showing people. Some discussion with Luis Suarez and we both got to see some interesting pieces.

First if you saw the original video you know this, is synchronous dialog/chat. Meaning for the non-technical crowd, as I write something, you can see it and vice versa. A nice touch, but I would like it NOT to work this way in business as sometimes you don't want the other party to read your 1st impression. I imagine this is amusing on the dating circuit.

Second, the browser window(I use FF) shows how many "waves" you have answers/comments on in the tab for the window so if you leave a window open on Wave all day you can easily see if you have new updates.

The Down side?
First, without an offline mode, not sure how helpful this is. Granted on the US most people are online everywhere but outside the US this is not always the case, thus using it for business could be a problem. So I can leave a message but can't get it? Probably some way to trigger an email notification but this would be useful.

Second, Where is everyone else? What else are they talking about? How does one find other waves to join in? Searching shows nothing. So unless I am invited or email someone there is nothing to do evidently. Not very enticing in this social world now is it?

Probably some more things will come to me and I will edit this post accordingly.

If you want me on Wave, try me at kbmsg2 at googlewave.com