But didn't other companies submitting new revolutionary "never before done" ideas had trouble in explaining it to their early adopters? Email, IM, Java, anything really.
I think Google Wave is great. But it is by its nature revolutionary, maybe we need more time to redefine how we think of "communication on the Internet"
Perhaps Google needs to try seeding entire companies at once -- preferably not companies composed entirely of geeks who know what Etherpad is -- instead of handing out invites to random folks. On the other hand, such a strategy would limit their growth rate and constrain their feedback in a different way. It's tricky.