On: Gmail Creator Thinks Email Will Last Forever. And Hasn’t Tried Google Wave.

The invite only strategy of Google Wave seems like a complete mis-step to me. It makes absolutely no sense unless people you know are also using Google Wave.

After trying out Google Wave for some time, I would argue that it’s definitely not ready for prime time.

Sure but you only get one chance to impress. How many people will be bothered about trying Google wave again when they think it is ready? Still a mis-step IMHO.

Limiting access gives Google a good chance of introducing a finished product. Something that will impress. I very much doubt that Google would impress all that many people with Google Wave as it is now. Me, sure, but not my dad.

Also: invites are not that hard to get to in this day and age. So you’ll be able to at least invite a few friends.

GMail Beta started out invite-only, and was that way for quite a while, thought by the time I got into it, I didn't have any friends who needed an invite.

True, but Gmail is email, which meant you could still interact with everyone else.

I got an early invite to GMail, and it was pretty much functional out of the box. I wish I could say the same of Wave.

The sandbox developers all got invites to give to their friends. I think that's where most of the people on the Wave Preview came from at the moment.