I got an invite to Google Wave about a week ago and I've been playing with it for the past few days. At first, I was really into it. I liked the instant(ness) to it, the ability to comment on specific aspects of chats, to integrate videos and maps into a stream, etc. I liked being able to edit friends comments and see what they edited. I was hooked, interested and mostly happy to be one of the 'privelaged' few (ie. 1,000,000 or so) to get 'early' access to the product.
That's what I love about Google in general. Exclusive invites that are rolled out randomly to a few hundred thousand and then slowly distributed to more and more people. It's a brilliant strategy:
1. Come up with a new product (I know...pretty basic thought)
2. Create a (longwinded) demo and launch the product to your most loyal base
3. Set a start date for when the product will go out in beta
4. Let people sign up to have the chance to be one of the first to experience it
5. Distribute invites to about 100,000 or so and slowly roll your product out
6. Launch (whenever you feel like it)
Love the strategy. As for Google Wave, to be honest, after the initial 'I feel so cool to have an invite' phase, it's starting to wear off on me.
