For anyone who knows me, you have probably heard me complain about e-mail. The concept of e-mail is over 40 years old now and was never, ever designed to make it do what we’re doing. The entire analogy is based on snail mail, which is completely wrong today. E-mail needs to be reinvented from the ground up.
Until recently I have not seen any plan that I thought could gain enough traction to offset the worldwide dominance that is e-mail. Then I saw this presentation on Google Wave:
Google is trying to create, in my opinion, not just a replacement for e-mail but a whole new way to communicate and collaborate online. While Wave won’t offset the dominance that e-mail has overnight it certain can become a new and vital communications standard in the next 10 to 15 years. This is a very cool product that I think deserves a lot of attention.
I’m not sure I care if it is Google Wave or not, but someone, ANYONE needs to come up with something to replace the horrid system that is POP/IMAP/SMTP. Maybe that is something simpler than Wave, maybe that new communications platform is Facebook? Doubtful.
Google Wave is going to change the way stuff is done for sure.. I can’t wait til it comes out email is so old its like using AOL Dial up..
Even after it comes out, it will take a while to become a new standard. I think it is pretty clear by the way Google has designed this that they want it to be a brand new communications standard to replace e-mail as a start.