Just a quick thought for today.

As I mentioned before, I’m waiting for my invitation to Google Wave (yeah, apparently it takes way more than one day to process).  Now I wrote about it naught but two days ago because it’s putting together some great features, but over the past 24 hours, that excitement and interest has dwindled to disappointment.

Here’s the thing: you make a great product, you make it exclusive to up the value and hype, then you need to make it actually useful for people!  The success of Google Wave depends solely on people’s desire and ability to collaborate creatively in many ways in a virtually live sense.  There’s plenty of that out there, but then when you put on the restraints like invite-only access, you’ve got to be careful with how that works.  In this particular case, the very thing creating the hubbub over who has it and who doesn’t is also turning around to hurt Google.

Don’t get me wrong, I completely understand why the invite-only way of spreading access is a great idea.  It worked well with Gmail, but only because you can use that account to e-mail any other e-mail address.  That way, people who don’t have it could see that you have it (a bit of a status thing at first) and you can still use the functionality on your end to organize messages and whatnot while not getting a disruption in your service.  But imagine if you got a Gmail account back when it was fresh and new and you were only allowed to e-mail other people with Gmail accounts.  It kind of kills the buzz, doesn’t it?  Well, that’s kind of what’s happening with Google Wave right now.

Early adopters were looking forward to trying out all the functions of this new application (or whatever you want to call it).  However, they’re stuck waiting around for days, maybe even weeks, just to be able to share it with their friends.  With all that Google can do, they can’t even create a system of approving invitations within the hour (or at least the day)?  I’m sure they have their reasons, but I don’t know if they can outweigh the loss of momentum between the initial burst of excitement surrounding getting invited and the follow-up burst of excitement when the invitation arrives and an account can be set up.  I imagine it would be like showing up to an exclusive event that you managed to get invited to only to be forced to wait in the lobby for hours.  Once I do get the full access I was looking forward to getting, I’ll be less enthusiastic about it from the impatience that built up during my wait.

To me it’s ironic that they’re handicapping the system by not giving it its lifeblood: connectivity.  I definitely think things are working against them in terms of the viral spread that is possible.  Wave’s growth is stunted by the fact that great, 100,000 people have it to test out now, but a good portion of them don’t really have anyone to use it with!  I know I’ve got some friends who have had it for a few days and don’t really get to use it creatively because all the people they invited still haven’t received the activation link.  Instead they’re sitting around waiting with us as well.  It’s a pity, really.

And though I’ve resolved myself to waiting probably another week before I can really try it out, I still hope that I get my code soon and keep checking my inbox, despite knowing deep down that I more than likely won’t get it in time to test it out before things pick up again and I have less time to spare.  I hope it’ll actually be impressive enough to reignite my interest once I do get started with it.  Otherwise, this whole delayed invitation process really was a bad business move on Google’s part.