Wave Goodbye to Google Wave

Posted on Aug 5, 2010 in Social Media

It looks like the road has ended for Google Wave (a web application for real-time communication and collaboration). In a blog post yesterday, Google stated that they “don’t plan to continue developing Google Wave as a standalone product, but we will maintain the site at least through the end of the year.”

I was surprised and disappointed to learn that Google was pulling the plug on Wave. The DIG team at Engauge started using Google Wave early on and we’ve used it for a variety of purposes (we even delivered a proposal to one of our clients through Google Wave). There were a few interesting case studies from brands that used Google Wave (and even some funny ways of using the application).

I remember when Wave was only available by invitation only that the demand was high to get access. Back in May, Google announced that anyone could use Wave and no invitation was needed. However, it doesn’t look like Wave caught on with the masses. According to the blog post, “Wave has not seen the user adoption we would have liked.” Personally, I like Google Wave much better than Google Buzz (wonder if Google will pull the plug on Buzz next?).

Why didn’t Google Wave take off? Too complicated? Just another website for someone to check? If it was integrated into Gmail, rather than Buzz, do you think that would have helped?

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  • sdsd

    yeah woulda defo helped if intergated to gmail ! come on google, be smart and put wave and gmail together !

  • Summers Pittman

    So Wave as a product isn't being developed. The individual technologies developed for Wave, however, are. These include GWT compiler speedups, collaboration utilities (noticed how collaborative editing in Docs has gotten better?), GWT size optimizations (it generates far less code to download), etc.

    With that said, I was really looking forward to being able to embed federated Waves on my personal blog. Looks like I won't get to any more.

  • http://www.kathlenehestir.com/ @KathleneHestir

    Nooooo not Google Wave! What will we do!

  • http://www.drewhawkins.org Drew Hawkins

    I don't think Wave being incorporated into Gmail would've helped much (i.e. Buzz). I feel the product was too niched to really take off. Wave had a lot of potential to do great things though, I can't knock the product itself.

    There are other technologies taking off that accomplish some of the same functions. I actually ran across a service called “Action Method” that accomplishes similar things as Wave. Haven't used it too terribly much yet but I like what I've seen so far.

    As far as Buzz, I'm not a huge fan. There isn't much on Buzz that I don't already see on my RSS and Twitter.

  • clouvi

    What do you plan to use moving forward? I have several active projects on there now.

  • http://welcometojmart.com/ Josh Martin

    I don't know. I know I'll probably use Wave until the end of the year. Hopefully, something similar will be available by that time.

  • http://welcometojmart.com/ Josh Martin

    I've never heard of Action Method. Will have to check that one out.