Google’s Wave: Early assessments a bit “off”

Google’s Wave is gathering a lot of comment, but in our view, much of it is missing the key points about the notion. Part of that problem lies with Google’s own positioning of Wave, which some believe may have been rushed into public view to overhang Microsoft’s Bing announcement. We’re not so sure.

This month in our Netwatcher newsletter we’ll be taking a look at Wave, and we’re offering a short TMT Advisor Planners’ Briefing for those who registered for the service.

Wave is an architecture, not a replacement for email or even IM, as some suggest. It is the first example of a rich, federated, OTT service, and as such it could be a total game-changer for everything from unified communications and collaboration to IMS, TMF, and ITU NGN.

Does Google get all of this, or are we just being an alarmist? That’s for the future to determine. Meanwhile, we recommend everyone take a very hard look at the true details and not base their perceptions on the coverage.