Not Surfing The Wave Yet, But Practicing In The Kiddie Pool

I signed up for Google Wave, but my invite has yet to come.  The hater in me would point to all the negative press and say, “I don’t want it anyway.” But I’m not a hater, especially when it comes to Google.  I don’t know where I would be if I didn’t use Gmail, Google Voice, and Google Reader, to name a few.

However, if you are looking for that special email/social media relationship that  Google Wave is supposed to supply, then here are some options that may ease the wait.

Threadsy.

Before I go any further, let me confess.  I am a layman. I do not know the first thing about being a developer.  I don’t know CSS or HTML.  What excites me about Google Wave is how it may enhance or replace email.  I know that email is dead.  That’s what I heard, anyway.  But until it goes the way of the facsimile machine, many of us laymen will continue to use email. So when I talk about the applications that I like to use while I wait for my invite, it has to do strictly with the ease of emailing and staying connected with the popular social media platforms.   Nothing complicated, here.  I’m not ready for email replacement right now. I just want email to be threaded or side by side with all my other important streams. That is the GWave appeal for me.

Back to Threadsy.

I asked for an invite to this web app and got one in what felt like seconds.  Once you set up your accounts, and it is an easy walkthrough for that, you will have a screen that allows you to receive and send email (called Inbound) from your various accounts and do your Twitter and Facebook thing too (called Unbound).  It’s a nice look.  The best part of it is when your contacts pop up and it shows you what other networks they belong to.  You knew your buddy was on Facebook, but you didn’t know he was on Flickr, Bebo, and Last.Fm.  Of course, you find this stuff out when you and your people are on the  same aggregator or lifestream app, like FriendFeed.  But not everyone is on that and not everyone has a Google Profile or a ReTaggr or DandyID.  And it is so much simpler to find out on Threadsy, especially if you have a few hundred contacts.  And Google Talk is also available.

However, it seems to be a memory hog and will sometimes give browsers fits (I have had problems on both Firefox and Safari).  And the option to put a signature for return emails would be great.

Inbox2

This web app does give you the option to put signatures for emailing. There is a lot of potential in this one.  Robert Scoble said that “email was saved,” after playing around with this.  Like Threadsy, you see all of your email accounts, Twitter and Facebook in one screen.  This is a non-US development team, so American Yahoo accounts don’t work yet.  LinkedIn will soon be on board  and more Facebook and Twitter functionality are on the way.  Right now you are able to get your replies and DM’s, but not your whole feed, but you can update your status.  You can update your Facebook status, but you can’t get messages.  Email retrieval is far from real time.  I know what you are saying, there are lot of buts, BUT this app is going to be a monster.  The five man development team is listening to what everyone is saying and they are making changes.  This is still in Beta.  What is hot about Inbox2 right now is the Facebook app.  If you are in Facebook all day, you will be able to check your email messages from Facebook, because all of the email accounts that you uploaded to Inbox2 show up in Facebook.  Just look for the red numbered bubble near the bottom of the Facebook screen (Applications notification box).

Digsby

I know it’s not new or even sexy anymore, but how can you beat an app that gives you all of your emails, instant messaging, LinkedIn as well as Twitter, MySpace, and Facebook in the corner of your screen.  And that Global Status option is good if you are only interested in simultaneous status updates for the Big 4.  And the search feature which is available to you when you are in the buddy list (hit control+F) is the best search feature around.

Gmail

Here’s the unsexiest one, Gmail.  Forward all of your main email accounts to Gmail.  Then enable your Gadgets so that you can bring in the Twitter (twitgether) and Facebook (GBook) gadgets that will sit in a sidebar and you can log in and follow those two networks while you have your emails open.  And if you remember my post about using RSS for LinkedIn updates, you can click on Reader while in Gmail and see your LinkedIn Network activity.  All from basically one screen.

These things are definitely making it easier for the layman to wait for Google Wave.  And who knows, even when my invite comes, maybe I won’t immediately hop on the surfboard to ride the Wave.

Tagged as: Digsby, Facebook, Flickr, FriendFeed, Gmail, google, Google Reader, Google Talk, Inbox2, LinkedIn, myspace, Robert Scoble, Threadsy, Twitter