It’s Time to Wave Good-Bye

We just heard that Google is killing its collaborative messaging service, Google Wave.  Wondering why? Do you use Google Wave? We didn’t think so, and therein lies the crux of the matter.

Google says it is closing down Wave due to lack of user interest. Though it was only unveiled last year (to much hype), Google Wave didn’t really keep up the projected momentum. Ultimately, the application was to change the way people communicate online allowing for real-time and collaborative efforts and editing of shared documents.  You could look at it as a mixture of Twitter and IM with email. Instead of being something truly revolutionary, it turns out that Google Wave simply ended up being more confusing than anything else.

Too bad, as the idea was a good one. Still, Google Wave is getting added to the long list of failed projects and will not be continued as a standalone product. However, the technology used in Wave will likely be incorporated into other projects, perhaps even some of the core online search advertising schemes Google has been pushing lately.

Some of the technology we will likely continue seeing in different Google applications and products include many of Wave’s innovations. We can probably expect to see some key elements of the software like the drag-and-drop and character-by-character live typing. This will probably make it easier for customers and developers to build on the existing technology.

Let’s just hope the guys over at Google will make it easy for those of us that have actually used Wave to get our content out and keep it elsewhere.
Source – online.wsj.com