The Ultimate* Newbies Guide to Google Wave Part I

Oct 28, 2009 by TheZargon    12 Comments    Posted under: Social Media

I know:  the title* is waaaaaay to bold for something that is evolving every single day but I am sticking by it

As soon as I got to use Wave actively one of the things that I was asking myself was:

“What are the major problems people are experiencing when logging into Google Wave for the first time?“

There was only one simple way to know it. I setup a public Wave called “Newbies Room” and waited for people to start dropping in and making questions. I got to help new users out and getting answers to my question.

Here is the (on going) result:

1. How doI get to invite my friend to Google Wave?

This is a question that is on everyone’s mind. You do need to have other users on your contact  list to experience Google Wave to its fullest (unless what kicks you is speaking to Robots). Apparently there are no rules for this: Some users are finding  a Wave that gives them 20 invites to send out and some aren’t. If you do get this Invites Wave do not make it public: If you do, other people will be able to join it and use your invites.

2. How long will Google keep Google Wave in this Preview Stage?

If Gmail taught us anything was the way that Google works: The roll out of Google Wave will be pretty similar to that of GMail.

3. How do I make a public wave?

A New Wave is, by default, private. To make a Wave public, please add to your contacts the easypublic@appspot.com robot and add it to your Wave. Your Wave will be, then, public and listed on the public searches.

4. What is the best browser to use for Google Wave?

Without any doubts Google Chrome is the best browser to experience Google Wave. If you are feeling experimental and use any other browser remember you will have to have Google Gears installed.

5. How come I don’t have any picture and my name is not showing?

You still have to fill out your Google profile. Go to your contacts, click on your blank avatar and then click on “Edit Profile“. You will be taken to your Google Profile page. Fill it out and you are all set. Other Wave users will be able to see the new information as soon as they log back to Google Wave.

6. I just got to participate in this huge wave and I can’t keep up with the conversation. What can I do?

You can use the Playback button to see everything that happened on the Wave (editing included).

7. Google Wave is behaving really badly with lots of lag

It is a PREVIEW and everyone should keep that in mind

8. When I add someone to my contacts are they able to see I did that? And the reverse, can I see who is adding me to their contacts?

The short answer is:NO. Contact’s notifications are still not implemented. This is something that has too many people puzzled (me included) because you would expect Google to port technology that they already have (GTalk) to Google Wave.

9. Public Wave Search is chaos. Is there any way I can narrow that search?

Sure. There are several ways to do this. Try searching “with:public Nuclear” and will get all the public waves that mention the word “Nuclear”. Another way is to search for “with:public tag:music” and you will get a list of all the waves that are tagged with “music”

10. I am here how to I get to have some fun? Games? Maps? Images? Videos? Audio? How to I insert all of these inside a Wave?

First thing you should do is  to install the available extensions that are already developed for Google Wave. On your inbox, you will have a Wave called Extensions Gallery. This wave will show you what Extensions you have installed. You can also uninstall them from this wave.

The installed extensions will be added to your top menu and you will see them as soon you open a blip. Here is where you can find Video Conference Extensions, Maps, Sudoku among others.

To insert Audio inside a Wave

The neatest and coolest way to insert audio in a Wave is by using the Soundcloud Gagdet: Just click on the insert gadget button (little green jigsaw puzzle) and insert the following URL:

http://wave-projects.googlecode.com/hg/gadgets/wave-soundcloud-player.xml

Wait for it to load, insert the URL of the track OR set (cool hey) and your Wave is ready to rock! (Or go techno-glitchy in my case)

To insert one or  more images just drag and drop it to your blip and it will appear as a thumbnail. If you double click it will show up full screen. If there is more than one picture on the Wave you can click on the “Images” tab (down left corrner) and choose “View as slide show”.

To insert video is also as easy as as pasting the YouTube URL on your blip. A yellow lamp will automatically show up right next to the URL and you will have the option to embed the video on your blip.

11. How do I tweet from within Google Wave.

Full Disclosure: I hate this robot but it is one question  that I get asked often. To tweet from within Google Wave you have to do the following:

1. Open a new Wave. Do not make it public!!

2. Add tweety-wave@appspot.com to your contacts and add it to that wave. A pop-up window will appear asking you to login to Twitter. After your credentials have been accepted everything that you write on that wave will be forwarded to your Twitter account.

Do not add this robot to a public wave. It will cause major disruption to all the users on that wave, it will delete the Wave-ID and you will have lots of people hating you instantly.

Links of Interest (You will need a Google Wave account to use these)

Newbies Wave and The Newbies Chat Room

For all of you Ableton Users out there I have setup a Ableton Users Wave that is currently being managed by the AbletonTweets Crew

Got anything to say? Go ahead and leave a comment!