From The Complete Guide to Google Wave: How to Use Google Wave
| ← Chapter 8: Wave Bots | Chapter 9: Life with Wave | Chapter 10: Wave in Action → |
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Once you're waving in earnest, get to know the best tools and tips for living with Wave.
Now that you know how to use Wave, you want to incorporate Wave into your everyday workflow. In this chapter, you'll learn how to get unread wave notifications, when you should "take it to Wave," and the basics of wave gardening. See the best browsers and clients for accessing Wave, and the most common problems you may face as you add Wave to your day-to-day digital toolset.
"You've Got New Waves": How to Get Wave Notifications
Once you're active in Wave, you want to know if something new is happening there—even if you don't have Wave open in your web browser. Several Wave notifier applications and add-ons can do the work of checking your Wave Inbox for you, and let you know you've got new and changed waves.
Google Wave Add-on for Firefox
If you use Mozilla's popular web browser, Firefox, the Google Wave Add-on puts a Wave icon on the status bar at the bottom of your browser window. That icon displays alerts when you've got new, unread waves and keeps a running total of how many unread changes you've got in your inbox. Click on the icon to open Wave in a new tab for quick access. Set your Wave login information in the extensions's Options dialog, as shown in Figure 9-1.
Download the Google Wave Add-on for Firefox at https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/14973. As of writing, the extension is listed as "experimental," which means it hasn't been reviewed by the Mozilla Add-ons editors. Check the box next to "Let me install this experimental add-on" to download and install it in your copy of Firefox.
Google Wave Notifier for Chrome
Chrome users who want Wave notifications built into their browser should check out the Google Wave Notifier extension for Google Chrome. This free extension adds a Wave icon to Chrome's toolbar and the current number of unread waves in your Inbox. Install the Google Wave Notifier for Chrome from http://goo.gl/g0Oq.
Alternately, Chrome lovers who also use Gmail, Google Voice, and Google Reader in addition to Wave can get notifications for all those products in a single extension, called One Number. Install the One Number extension at http://goo.gl/ivnQ.
Googsystray for Windows and Linux
If you'd rather get Wave notifications outside of your browser, Googsystray is a system tray utility for Windows and Linux that plays a sound when new waves arrive and displays unread wave notifications in the corner of your screen, as shown in Figure 9-2.
Click a Wave notification to open the unread wave directly in your browser. Googsystray is particularly useful if you're an all-around Google lover, as it also offers Gmail, Google Voice, Google Calendar, and Google Reader notifications. Download Googsystray for free from http://googsystray.sourceforge.net/.
Google Wave Notifier for Windows
Don't need all the bells, whistles, and multi-service support of Googsystray? The aptly named Google Wave Notifier is a Windows system tray utility that, like the others, alerts you of new and changed waves with unread content in a pop-up box and icon, as shown in Figure 9-3.
Like Googsystray, you can click on an alert to open the new wave directly. Download the Google Wave Notifier for free from http://wave-notify.sourceforge.net/.
Waveboard with Growl Notifications for Mac OS X
Mac users who want Wave notifications should try Waveboard. Waveboard is a free, standalone Wave client that adds a Waveboard icon with your total of unread waves on Mac OS X's menu bar and Dock. Waveboard also provides pop-up Growl notifications, as shown in Figure 9-4.
To get Growl notifications with Waveboard, download and install Growl for your Mac from http://growl.info/. Waveboard is also a free download from http://www.getwaveboard.com/.
XMPP Lite for Google Talk and AIM
Unlike the other notifier apps and add-ons listed here, the XMPP Lite bot is a solution that you put to work directly inside the specific waves you want to receive updates from. If you add the XMPP Lite bot to a wave and then click the Subscribe button in the blip it adds (as shown in Figure 9-5), you'll receive IM updates when that wave changes.
XMPP Lite is one of this book's featured bots. For details on how to use it, head back to the "XMPP Lite (wave-xmpp@appspot.com)" section in Chapter 8.
Wave Browsers, and Desktop and Mobile Clients
Since it's a web application, most of the time you'll access Wave using your web browser of choice. However, some browsers work with Wave better than others, and specialized Wave clients are beginning to emerge, starting with site-specific browsers. Wave is also available for modern mobile browsers on your smartphone. Here are some of the best clients for getting Wave on your desktop and on the go.
Wave-Compatible Web Browsers
The biggest advantage of using a web application is that you don't have to install any software—you can access it from a web browser, with which every modern computer comes equipped. However, with Wave, there are some caveats. Wave uses recently developed web standards, such as HTML5, to perform a lot of its behind-the-scenes magic. That means Wave provides a richer experience than you'd expect from a lot of web applications, but it also means you need a modern browser with full support for HTML5 to use Wave. Wave-compatible web browsers include:
When you use Firefox or Safari, Wave doesn't require—but does give you a good reason to install—the Google Gears plug-in.[4] When installed, Gears enables features like drag-and-drop image and file uploads from your desktop to your wave. (Google Chrome ships with Gears built in, so Chrome users don't have to install it separately.)
The Problem with Internet Explorer
Take a quick look at the Wave-compatible web browsers listed in the previous section. Notice anything strange? The most commonly used web browser on the planet, Internet Explorer, doesn't have native HTML5 support, so it can't run Wave properly.
What do you do if you're in a restricted environment where Internet Explorer is your only option? Google has released an open source browser plug-in for IE called Google Chrome Frame.[5] Chrome Frame puts Chrome's page rendering technology and JavaScript engine inside IE to run Wave and other HTML5 web applications. Chrome Frame won't kick in on every web site you visit. Web developers have the option to embed a piece of code in web pages that tells Chrome Frame to take over for IE—and that's exactly what Wave's developers have done.
If you visit the Wave site using IE, you are encouraged to use another browser that supports HTML5, or to install the Google Chrome Frame plug-in for IE, as shown in Figure 9-6.
Google Chrome Frame is a free download, but you need rights to install it on your computer, which may rule out some locked-down, corporate workstations.
Wave Site-Specific Browsers
Site-specific browsers (or SSBs)[6] are special web browsers built to run single web applications as standalone clients.
Waveboard for Mac is one such SSB for Google Wave that offers a standalone Wave application for your Mac desktop, as shown in Figure 9-7.
Waveboard offers a dedicated icon, unread wave counts on the Dock and menu bar, and Growl notifications. Waveboard Pro includes the ability to save and print waves with replies included. Download Waveboard at http://www.getwaveboard.com. (As of writing, Waveboard is free and the upgrade to Waveboard Pro costs €9.00.)
Waver is another SSB that runs on Windows, Mac, and Linux computers with Adobe's AIR platform installed. Rather than run the Wave client you're used to using in your browser, Waver runs the mobile Wave interface, which gives Wave more of the look and feel of an instant messenger application on your desktop, as shown in Figure 9-8.
Waver is a free download at http://goo.gl/iskH.
If you're not comfortable keeping Wave hidden away as just another tab in your web browser—fearing, perhaps, that you'll miss important updates on a wave—you're in luck. Armed with a Wave notifier or SSB, you can keep up with Wave without taking up a browser tab.
Wave Mobile: Getting Wave on Your Smartphone
Any communication tool worth its salt needs to be accessible on mobile devices, and Wave is no exception. Happily, even at this early stage with its stringent browser requirements, Wave offers a compact, touchscreen-friendly mobile version that mostly works, albeit slowly, in current modern mobile browsers, including the default browsers on the iPhone, iPod touch, and Android devices.
For example, when you first visit Wave in Mobile Safari on the iPhone, a warning appears telling you that your browser isn't supported. However, if you tap the "go ahead" link, not only does Wave load, it loads fullscreen, without any of Safari's interface visible,[7] as shown in Figure 9-9. If you add a Wave bookmark to your homescreen, every time you launch Wave it also loads fullscreen, like a standalone application.
Wave also loads in Android's built-in web browser after you tap the "go ahead" link. But be warned: when Wave tells you your browser isn't supported and you click "go ahead" anyway, there's a risk that certain waves won't open or that they will misbehave.
Waveboard, the Wave client mentioned in the preceding section, is also available as a $1.99 iPhone application.[8] To remedy Wave's slow rendering on the iPhone, the Waveboard app offers a "Quick Inbox" read-only but fast-loading view, as shown in Figure 9-10.
Waveboard for the iPhone is also beginning to offer Wave push notifications[9] of unread waves on your iPhone or iPod touch. Download the Waveboard iPhone app from the iTunes App Store.
When Wave Works Best
As with any new and emerging software, it's difficult (and foolish) to make hard and fast rules about when and how to use Wave to achieve best results. Wave is still young, and as it evolves and you experiment over time, its best applications will show themselves. Still, even at this early stage, Wave really shines in particular scenarios.
As you make decisions about when and how to use Wave to get things done, keep in mind a few situations when Wave works best.
In Smaller Workgroups with a Specific Purpose
In Wave's current state, the most clean and productive waves have a couple of things in common:
- They're waves focused on a specific purpose
- The group of participants is relatively small, from 6 to 12
The less focused your wave is from the start, the less you're likely to get out of it. Imagine opening a Word document for the first time with no focused intent; you'd end up staring at a blinking cursor, wondering what the point is.
In a similar vein, the larger a wave's participant list grows, the more likely your wave is to devolve into something resembling YouTube-quality comments, forum flames, and spam-like blasts. That is to say, your wave will be quickly susceptible to off-topic conversations and useless criticism and flaming. It's a sad truth of the internet, but avoiding it just takes a little stewardship.
Like other social spaces on the internet, the more focused your wave's topic, and the more focused the group of people contributing to it, the more likely you are to produce higher quality output. Wave's built-in access permissions, discussed in more detail in Chapter 2, give you some control over who can participate in and contribute to your waves, so consider what access permission makes sense for the kind of wave you're starting.
To Collaborate on Multimedia
The ability to edit others' waves coupled with drag-and-drop image uploads, videos, maps, and inline replies make Wave a multimedia collaboration dream. To collect and co-caption photos from multiple people in one place, then play back a slide show—Wave is for you. To add images and videos inline within a document, Wave is for you. To add and annotate a Google map of geographical information to a document, Wave is for you.
While Wave does not do as good a job of creating flat, printable documents like Microsoft Word can, it absolutely shines when you're compiling interactive content full of multimedia bits and pieces from around the web.
To Grow Live Documents Quickly
Things happen fast, and sometimes you want to capture it, with the help of your friends, in a single place. When you've got something to document, a few sets of hands to help, and the need for speed, turn to Wave. Wave lets a group of people grow a live document quickly and simultaneously: conference attendees can co-write session notes; journalists or bloggers can jot event notes in one place and the same time; and remote co-workers located halfway across the world can build a wave in real-time very rapidly. In Wave, there's no lag time or file locking when your co-participant in Sydney, Australia adds text to your wave three words down from the words you're typing at your desk in California.
To Have an In-Depth Conversation with Tangents
Inline replies are perhaps Wave's most unique and useful feature. They give you the ability to branch a conversational sub-thread beneath any bit of relevant text inside a wave. Inline replies make having an in-depth conversation with several participants possible, because a single conversation can sprout many branches, as shown in Figure 9-11.
When to Say "Let's Take It to Wave"
If you're new to Wave (and let's face it, we're all relatively new to Wave), it may take some time before you start incorporating it into your workflow—even though it may often be the best tool for the job. Here are a few instances—and telltale indicators—that it may be time to move a conversation, document, or collaboration into Wave:
- Your workgroup is emailing multiple versions of a file around
- Your group chat session is impossible to follow because people are talking about different topics at once
- A group email thread's gotten out of control with multiple reply-to-all's
- Your brainstorming session or meeting should produce documentation of the ideas or decisions that came out of it
Based on just these four situations, you can already imagine scenarios when Wave could be very useful. The upcoming Chapter 10 will cover specific, practical Wave use cases in depth.
Gardening Your Waves
Waves are living documents, and they need tending: especially active waves with lots of participants.
When you first start using Wave, you'll likely be timid, and just add individual blips in response to other participants. But, you're not limited to editing only the blips you've created. You may be uncomfortable with the thought of editing someone else's words, but don't be! Wave is all about collaboration, and to get the most out of it, participants need to be bold about gardening their waves.
This doesn't mean that you need to correct the capitalization and grammar of other participants in every wave—remember, context is important, and your friends or co-workers could get plain annoyed under the wrong circumstances. Under the right circumstances, however, jumping in feet first to correct, expand, and clean up blips is what Wave enables you to do, and your collaborators will likely be thrilled to accept your help.
To Garden or Not to Garden?
A good litmus test to decide whether or not editing a blip is worthwhile, ask yourself: "Does my edit help achieve this wave's goal?" If it does, go nuts, whether you're trying to clarify a point or simply fixing a typo. On the other hand, if your edits are extraneous to the goal of a wave, your edits could come off as patronizing. The Wave Golden Rule is: Edit unto others as you'd want them to edit unto you. The nice thing about Wave is that it's not the end of the world if you don't like an edit another participant made—you can just run through a playback of the wave's progression and restore your original content.
Wave Anarchy
Giving netizens the ability to edit each others' words inside Wave opens the door to utter chaos, especially in public waves. There's nothing stopping anyone from inserting the word "not" into every sentence he or she has edit access to in Wave and maliciously reversing its original meaning. Just like it is on the internet at large, vandalism is a common problem in Wave, especially in the larger and more active waves. If you're the owner of a wave that the public or a large group of participants has edit rights to, you may have to garden very aggressively to keep the wave on track, and use the Playback feature's Restore button often.
Common Complaints about the Wave Preview
Wave is still a young web application in invitation-only preview—and as such, early adopters can run into similar problems as they ramp up their own Wave usage. Here are some common complaints about the Wave preview.
"No one I know is ever logged in"
Wave is less than a year old, which means Wave adoption is quite low—mostly due to the fact that you need an invitation to get into the Wave preview. So, it can be difficult to get your friends and co-workers on Wave to begin with, not to mention keep them there. At this early stage, find your friends and co-workers who are already waving, or recruit an adventurous few with a specific task to complete in Wave, and have at it. (For example, get your pals to agree to try organizing the weekly poker game in Wave.) Like any new social technology, sometimes friends and collaborators need encouragement and reason to stick around after they initially try it.
"Everyone I've waved never responds"
Lots of new users who get invited to Wave log on, look around, log off, and never return—therefore, you've probably got a few dead waves just waiting for a response from other participants who went MIA on Wave entirely. Nudge your co-wavers in person or via email; chances are they didn't know you waved them back, or about the Wave notifier apps that are available.
"Wave's slow and crashes too much"
When Wave's servers are busy, Wave can be very slow and individual waves can crash or take a long time to load. If you're using Firefox or Safari with Wave and experiencing long load times, give Google Chrome a try. In our experience, Wave runs a bit more smoothly in Chrome than other browsers.
"Can't use anything but IE at work and can't install Chrome Frame"
If you don't have rights to install software on your work computer, and you're limited to using only Internet Explorer, when it comes to Wave, you're out of luck. The Wave experience in IE is highly unstable. If you can, ask your IT department if you can install Chrome Frame in IE, or use an alternate browser like Chrome itself, or Firefox.
"Can't export waves to files or print them easily"
By design, Wave doesn't produce flat documents fit for easy export to text, Word, PDF, or other printable format. In Chapter 8 you met the PDF Wave Exporter bot, which is limited but can export the text of a wave's root blip to PDF. Waveboard Pro for Mac offers both a Save and Print option for individual waves. However, otherwise, as of writing, it is not easy to export or print waves into readable formats.
"I want people to be able to respond to waves, but not edit them"
As of writing, the Wave preview offers exactly two access permission levels for waves: "Read only" and "Full access." The Google Wave team promised that a third access permission level, "Reply-only," is forthcoming.[11] It will let you allow participants to add reply blips to a wave only.
"Big waves break down and become unusable"
After a few hundred blips—especially if they contain several gadgets—a big wave can slow down to the point of becoming unusable. If that happens and you want to continue a wave, copy any blip in it to a new wave, and if possible, add a link to the new wave in the original one to direct participants to the new location of the conversation.
"I can't use Wave seriously until you can remove participants from waves"
As of writing, the inability to remove participants from waves is Wave's most frightening missing feature. If you or a participant accidentally adds someone to a wave he or she wasn't meant to see, it's not only embarrassing, it can be a serious problem, especially in the workplace. This is a feature that is most definitely in the works, but at this point, it's a valid dealbreaker for potential Wavers.
"I don't want another inbox to check"
Without email notifications, using Wave in earnest does require checking yet another inbox—not something most of us want to do. Try using the notification add-ons and applications mentioned earlier in this chapter to ease the pain.
Now that you've gotten started integrating Wave into your everyday workflow, hear how other users are getting things done in Wave in Chapter 10, Wave in Action.
References
- ↑ Google Chrome, Google.com
- ↑ Firefox web browser, Mozilla.com
- ↑ Safari, Apple.com
- ↑ Google Gears, Google.com
- ↑ Google Chrome Frame, Google.com
- ↑ Site-specific browser, Wikipedia.org
- ↑ Supported metas, Safari Dev Center: Safari HTML Reference, Apple.com
- ↑ Waveboard, iTunes Store
- ↑ Push Notifications, GetWaveboard.com
- ↑ Be bold!, The Google Wave Blog
- ↑ New features: Read-only and Restore, The Google Wave Blog
| ← Chapter 8: Wave Bots | Chapter 9: Life with Wave | Chapter 10: Wave in Action → |
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