Google cancels Wave

[wuyanks]

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Remember Google I/O 2009, when Google previewed the next greatest collaboration platform, Wave? Well today, fourteen months later, Google officially axed the Wave project. Urs Hölzle, SVP Operations, explains that Wave was a "radically different kind of communication", and that Google was skeptical about Wave's future prospects from the start. After going through an invitation-based beta early on, Google switched Wave to an open beta in May 2010 as an attempt to garner more interest in the platform. However, to Google's lament, Wave really never became mainstream. In Hölzle's own words:

...Wave has not seen the user adoption we would have liked. We don’t plan to continue developing Wave as a standalone product, but we will maintain the site at least through the end of the year and extend the technology for use in other Google projects. The central parts of the code, as well as the protocols that have driven many of Wave’s innovations, like drag-and-drop and character-by-character live typing, are already available as open source, so customers and partners can continue the innovation we began. (hit the source link for the full blog post)

Google believes that although the platform will no longer be supported, Wave's code will be implemented elsewhere in its arsenal (think Google Docs, Buzz, Me, etc). The Wave site will be maintained "at least until the end of the year." If you have current projects on Wave, worry not. Google plans to develop tools so you can "liberate" your content from Wave. Furthermore, since Wave's code is open-source, the community can amend and improve it in the future, if there is such a desire.

So, who here will miss Google Wave? Did Wave suffer an untimely death, or was this merely a move by Google to cut some dead weight?

via Technologizer
source: Google Blog

 

[Abe21599]

yea i saw that going nowhere.

 

[aminaked]

wave goodbye

 

[smegoul]

Perhaps if it was open earlier it would have engendered more interest.

Sent from my Droid using Tapatalk

 

[Timber]

Took me forever to get the invite and once I got in once I never went back. They should have ramped things up a lot faster and maybe it would have held some interest.

 

[aminaked]

Yeah, but that's the way Google always operates...like with gmail, google voice, and junk. They're like Gollums with their precious web-based apps. You want...preciousssSSss...

 

[SGTiger]

Yeah, but that's the way Google always operates...like with gmail, google voice, and junk. They're like Gollums with their precious web-based apps. You want...preciousssSSss...

Reminds me of how I still haven't received my invite for the Android Inventor app. ....really kills the enthusiasm that I had when I heard about it.

 

[SSHGuru]

I got Wave and never used it. Bye Bye.

 

[WVOz1970]

Oh yeah... I remember signing up for that. Looked at it once or twice and never used it again. Just didn't see any real benefit to the platform.

 

[hookbill]

I never understood it. Didn't see what good it would do. I'm not surprised to see it go.

 

[Cloppy]

i used it once, interesting idea just never caught on. email is just too big to get rid of. maybe next time google.

 

[icculusX]

I had wave, never used it cause no one I knew had it. Hah...

I really think if Google stuck with the idea and improved upon it Wave could have become the biggest thing. I wanted Google to make Wave the one stop online site where all your google stuff was combined into one screen. Like gmail, chat, calendar, docs, voice, maybe even stuff like facebook if that was possible. It would have been nice if it were pumped up, but they did nothing with it... and so here it is now...