Google Wave's Little Secret: It Already Works On The iPhone
Google Wave, the search giant's latest experiment in post-email communications, is hardly out the gate, with some of the first 100,000 private beta testers still waiting for their invites. (I just finally got mine today, two weeks after launch).
Context & Ripple Effects
Google Wave has moved fast from stage demo to limited product: after the May 2009 unveiling pitched as a new communication platform for the web, Lifehacker walked through the interface in a September first look, and CNET's July reality check questioned how much of the ambition would survive contact with users.
The private beta opened around 100,000 invites on September 30, the same day Ribbit showed third parties could extend Wave with voice. This piece adds one more data point from inside the beta: the author only received an invite roughly two weeks after launch, and found the service already usable in the iPhone's browser despite no native client existing.
First-order effects
- iPhone-carrying testers among the roughly 100,000 invitees can use Wave now through the mobile browser, extending the beta beyond the desktop without Google shipping an app.
Second-order effects
- Browser-based availability lowers the friction of testing Wave across device types, which strengthens the case for extension builders like Ribbit that are betting on Wave becoming a platform rather than a standalone inbox replacement.
Third-order effects
- If a real-time collaboration tool reaches smartphones purely through the web stack, it pressures the assumption that consumer communication products need native clients first — a structural question for both Google and platform owners like Apple.
The trend: Communication platforms are increasingly designed as web-first services that reach mobile users through the browser before any native application exists.