I don't think I ever wrote about Google Wave on this site, simply cause it is not search. But now that Google announced Google Wave will be discontinued by the end of the year. Why? People don't use it.
What is Google Wave? Here is a video demo:
Personally, I tried using it a few times for different cases. But honestly, it didn't work out too well. It was confusing for some to use and was not as structured as people would like. Google said:
But despite these wins, and numerous loyal fans, 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.
So why write about it today? Well, a lot of what was developed for Wave is being used in other Google Products and who knows, we may find them in Google Search.
We have some forums discussing it as well, including WebmasterWorld, Google Blogoscoped Forums and DigitalPoint Forums. In fact, many in the forums are upset it is going away. For example:
Shame, it's become a great part of our companies CRM. We use salesforce and it's new chatter component doesn't cut it when compared to Wave. Google should let it live a little longer.
I have 3 different projects runnign inside wave with 2, 3 and 12 people collaborating respectively.Sad that it will close when it was starting to be useful. Having said that, it could be a whoooole lot smoother to use. I think the usability hump was to high for most people to bother with.
Are you sad?
Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld, Google Blogoscoped Forums and DigitalPoint Forums.
