I was thinking lately about Google products and consumers and I thought maybe Google is getting ahead of consumers too quickly. If you think about it, Apple is very forward-thinking in design, but with interfaces, they believe that simplicity is key and with consumers it is. Apple pushes the consumer to accept new technology by simplifying it. I am a pretty firm believer in that, if you are going to produce something it has to be simple and easy to use. That’s not so much the case with some of Google’s latest technologies.

Google Wave and Google Voice seem like they are getting ahead of the average consumer. They are both very innovative, but they are not simple enough for the average consumer. The average consumer wants to simplify their life, which is what Wave and Voice set out to do, but they also add another layer of unwanted complexity. For Google Wave, you have to check yet another website and learn how to use another service to communicate people when you already use email, facebook, im etc. Google wave adds another level of complexity in that you have to save a second set of numbers to your phone and there is still not MMS functionality so you have to give out your cell number in addition to your Google Voice number if you want to use the service. Both are forward thinking services but they are significantly ahead of consumers and thats why Google is probably having a tough time getting the average consumer to continue using these products. To me they seem like they might be better suited for the forward thinking technologists and maybe one day either they will be simplified or consumers will catch up to speed.