Brief admittedly because Google’s version of the Wave hasn’t launched, and it isn’t open source enough for me to have my own Wave implementation setup, so I have no idea how it really works up close.

Wave is not a reinvention of email. Google may have said it is, but it’s not. Wave is another version of conversation. The fears laid out in the Fast Company article (especially #2), say it all:

“With live transmission as you type, participants on a wave can have faster conversations, see edits and interact with extensions in real-time.” That’s what Google says. Am I the only one who writes an email, then revises it for tone and clarity? It’s creepy enough that other people know when I’m typing on Gtalk. Now they can see what I’m thinking as I try out sentences?

That is exactly what a conversation is.

When I’m standing in the same room as somebody and conversing with them, anything that comes out of my mouth is heard. If I stutter, or misspeak, or change my mind mid sentence… I am allowed. If the person listening to me needs to interrupt me or offer an answer that I’m having trouble expressing, they can. Just like that. Two people don’t sit and stare at each other while they try to formulate the perfect response.

Conversation doesn’t have to be chess. And to me, Google Wave is for conversation.

Your profile is not yet eligible to be featured in Google search results.

To have your profile featured, add more information about yourself.

A link is given for Add more info to my profile, and learn more. I follow the learn more link, as I’ve already added plenty of info to my profile and I can’t figure out what else they could need.

The learn more section has the basics — add info to your profile, add links to your web pages, etc, etc — and then a section for “Verify your name” and get a “Verified” badge on your account.

Sweet, I can be Google Official! I click on verify your name and am brought to a page that tells me I should:

• Sign in on the Knol homepage.
• Select Preferences from the My profile drop-down menu in the top right corner of the page.
• Click Name Verification.
• Select how you want Google to verify your name.

So I sign into the Knowl homepage and at first the My profile link isn’t up in the top right corner, but after a few clicks it suddenly appears. I click on the My profile link and go to preferences and then Name Verification.

Wow, two options — Phone or credit card. Each seems easy enough, so I go with phone. I enter my name, address, phone number and click the button to have Google call me.

Alas, I am not in the “directory”, whatever that is. So I cannot use this method for verification.

Whatever, credit card is just as easy. I click Verify name by credit card. Enter name, address, credit card number… and no — “We encountered the following problem: Error: please try later.” How descriptive.

So then I gave up and added a short biography of nonsense, and then added my special super powers, and then added something I can’t find on Google. Saved my profile one more time, and voila, my profile is eligible to be featured in Google search.

Huh?

We also think this is good for competition. The truth is, this kind of arrangement is commonplace in many industries, and it doesn’t foreclose robust competition. Toyota sells its hybrid technology to General Motors, even though they are the number one and number two car manufacturers globally. Canon provides laser printer engines for HP, despite also competing in the broader laser printer market. Google and Yahoo will continue to be vigorous competitors, and that competition will help fuel innovation that is good for users.

This quote from the official Google Blog post regarding the recently announced deal between them and Yahoo is spot on.

I hope.

It is true that this statement was created by a public relations machine and is more of a defense against possible regulators and lawsuits than a promise to the rest of the world. But, if any company was to be truthful in that statement and use this opportunity for competition and cooperation, my bet would be that the people heading Google and Yahoo are crazy enough to make it work.

If not, then at least they have good PR departments, and I’m still a sucker for that.

Sign on to Google Reader a bit later, and check the latest hot trends for the last hour, and what’s number 4? Gordon Ramsey cookware, peaking about 2 hours ago– during the show. I love how we love our tv.

Needless to say, the only reason this post is being written instead of the “hey guys, snakey’s the shit in gmail” post, is because— it’s 9:00PM PDT and it hasn’t launched yet. Grr… C’mon Google, hit the schedule or go back to sneaky secrets again. At least waking up to a surprise would be better than this. I want my damn Snakey.

In reality, I sympathize with the coders who told their bosses– “yeah, we can totally roll this out worldwide in like 15 minutes”– and are now furiously trying to figure out why the on switch didn’t work. Or I understand that this could all be part of the plan, slow roll and all that. But. By making myself look like a jackass by complaining, I’m increasing the chances that it gets turned on as soon as I hit the publish button. Bets?

On a side note. I do know that I linked to TechCrunch and the Washington Post above. And I do know that they are the same article, written on TC, cross posted on WP. I just wanted to make note that it fooled me for a brief second when I searched Google News for “gmail labs” and the first result was a WP article. I was like, damn they’re on their game, but then was like, oh, it’s TC. Either way, good distribution for TC. But where are the screenshots on the WP article, that should definitely be worked out. End rant.