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Google Wave dies of acute unpopularity at age 1
Google Wave, touted last year as the future of text-based communication, will wave no more. Google just announced that it will be ceasing development on Wave, and eventually shutting it down, because it never caught on the way it was supposed to. Some of Wave's technology, like the drag-and-drop feature and live typing, will live on as open source. Export tools are coming soon so that you can get your data out before Wave is over for good at the end of the year.I used Wave for a while, and I can understand why it never caught on. It could serve the functions of email, instant messenger, or a live demo or (ugh!) "webinar" ... but it was never the ideal solution for any of them. It was also incredibly resource-intensive with large numbers of people on a Wave, which is a bummer, because sharing information to large groups in real time, with the replay saved for sharing later, was Wave's strong suit.
Because Wave never really replaced anything, and we never stopped using Gmail or Google Talk, the only major effect this shutdown has is freeing up creative Google personnel to move on to the next big thing. Whether you loved or hated Wave, you have to admit it was ambitious. I'm looking forward to seeing what the creators come up with next.
Comments
16
Subscribe to commentsManAug 4th 2010 6:31PM
I got one of those Google Wave accounts early and used it twice but it was too complicated and with nothing new or innovating I never used it again.
I'm also waiting for what the Google Labs come up with hopefully it would be a virtual online desktop that multiple people can access. It would be ideal for college classes or work collaborations.
SilverWaveAug 4th 2010 7:16PM
Win some. Lose some.
Sebastian AnthonyAug 4th 2010 9:09PM
Damn...
Well, at least it was you breaking the news, Jay. Softens the blow a little :)
(And the picture... man... golden!)
MaxAug 4th 2010 11:32PM
Dang, I used Google wave a lot to track bugs on some of my smaller programs :/.
Granted, none of my technical friends would use it, so I mainly used wave as a stand in for evernote.
Gonna be sad it's gone, they might have done some more creative things with it.
@SilverWave - Agreed (Wave was headed by one of the creators of Google maps)
Tech75Aug 5th 2010 12:58AM
That's very true. Google wave was supposed to be dead long time back. I don't know how it survived for so long. It did not get much public attention as compared to other social websites like Google Buzz, facebook and twitter.
DamianAug 5th 2010 12:57AM
...
I'm really really dissapointed. There were 2 things I was waiting for, full integration with gmail so I could use it as an e-mail box as well as a wave box. And a little more maturity so I could use it at work, I saw at as the perfect tool for team work.
BenAug 5th 2010 4:40AM
@Damian.
I think decent email integration is what lots of people were waiting for and it's one of the things the Google Wave team forgot about from the very beginning. Later the team did add email alerts, but they went the wrong way—alerting people of updates to their waves through email, rather than giving them access to their email from within the lovely Google Wave interface. A huge mistake, especially considering everyone needs email every now and then (say, to book an airfare over the internet).
Looking back in computer history I see a similar thing happening around 1985 (the year when a small company called Microsoft released a little piece of software called “Windows” which was supposed to replace the then 20 year old DOS). If windows couldn't run DOS programs back in 1985 no users would have brought it as it didn't have many apps available, and no developer would write apps for a platform that didn't have any users. Therefore Microsoft had to spend many man-hours developing a large piece of software with the single purpose of becoming useless (something the Google Wave team didn't think was worth while). Even today You’ll find that Windows 7 can run DOS programs, although not many people make use of the functionality.
I loved Google Wave, but I knew from the very beginning that it would be very difficult to convince family and friends to switch from email to wave, especially when they couldn't use it to communicate with most of the people they knew. It's a sad reality, but I ended up not using Google Wave much for the same reasons—not many people were on there, and despite the fact that Wave was a nicer interface to use to sort through messages, all the mail I needed to sift through was already sitting in my gmail inbox.
KevinAug 5th 2010 5:38AM
Pointless app is pointless.
EatmoldAug 5th 2010 6:05AM
Agree with Ben, Wave was a great idea but only being able to communicate with fellow Wavers stopped me using it.
The majority of my friends are stuck in their ways only use Hotmail (spit!) and Facebook ... I'm hoping the majority of the technology used comes back in Gmail, Docs ..... maybe even Google Me?
sharkyncAug 5th 2010 9:10AM
I "used" wave a few times, got carried out to sea
and waved goodbye.
Andrew SittermannAug 5th 2010 10:22AM
It's a real shame. The real-time multi-user apps supported by wave have a great future. We have a Google Wave travel-planner called "Travel WithMe",
and people love the real-time experience.
Sensing that wave might not be going places, we've put it on facebook now as well, but still with Google Wave's realtime features. It's at apps.facebook.com/travel-withme.
ronmosesAug 5th 2010 11:23AM
I opened Google Wave exactly once, took a look, said "oh my god what the hell is all this?!?!?" and shut 'er down forever. Good riddance to bad garbage.
kevjohnAug 5th 2010 1:23PM
I was on the Wave for awhile. Never really "got" it. I rely on Google to help simplify my life, not complicate it. And this particular all-in-one was not simple.
hexdslAug 5th 2010 2:38PM
google wave was a dream for podcasters and organisation. i cant fathom why google didnt put more effort it. three things to save it
1) Email integration
2) Mobile version (iphone/Android)
3) ability to import your social network feeds
RahabibAug 5th 2010 5:16PM
it had some potential.
the interface was horrible (IMO)
lack of plugins and such made it a bit pointless too.
kagosageAug 5th 2010 6:49PM
It was a great idea - but no one on the other end knew how to use it or had it for that matter. I think instead of going with google wave, incorporate some of these ideas into the already existent and successful gmail. Why have two emails gmail and googlewave? It could fairly easily be incorporated into gmail, they got all the hard part out of the way. Wave was probably just too far ahead of its time.