Having watched his infamous 80 minute Google Wave demo twice over- we were looking forward to see the man in real life. And the man did not disappoint. Using his distinctive wit, he quipped, “I always start my lectures with my computer crashing”, when his computer refused to light up. The prospect of a BSOD on a Google guy’s Microsoft XP amused me thoroughly, but a prospect it remained and the lecture began.
He ran through the important features of Google Wave during the lecture for the benefit of those who hadn’t seen his demo earlier. He talked about the Indian connection of Google Maps- how a substantial amount of the development work and innovation had happened at Google’s Bangalore office. He handled numerous technical and organizational snags with his characteristic sense of humour- what with his VPN not working (“so you’ll just have to imagine what it looked like”) and an IITian having to hold up a mike while he was typing after his collar mike died.
It was rather telling how he even acknowledged the difficulties faced by Google Wave users with the same sense of humor- presenting the http://easiertounderstandthanwave.com/ website which compares Google Wave to, amongst other things, radiocarbon dating, vector calculus and the United States Tax code (the last of which seems to be more difficult than Wave). Note: this website is not at all good for productivity. Don’t say we didn’t warn you!
While most of the actual lecture didn’t quite reveal anything substantially new, he did let the audience know that Google was working on about 40 languages for Wave- and proceeded with a demo for the same. He also let slip that the Wave invite process would come to a halt in a few months- anyone can then sign up for Wave on the website.
We then caught up with him after the lecture and asked him a few of questions (see video). We asked him about how they work on quality control for Google Maps, his reaction to IBM’s Project Vulcan (the next generation of Lotus Notes), to protocols competing with the Wave protocol (he reveals that they have indeed been talking to IBM), to Nokia’s now free Navigator and on working on an equivalent to the BCC and Forward options in email. He also talked about life in Google after his own entrepreneurial stint. He made it clear how the culture within Google is ideal for the enterprising lot.
Note: We shot this video in poor lighting. But then its more about what he said, isn’t it? 🙂
Students mobbing Dr Lars after the lecture
By Aditya Sengupta @sengupta & Annkur P Agarwal
