After all of the hype, including people selling invites on Ebay, Google has basically closed the book on Google Wave:
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.
In theory, Wave sounded like a great product, particularly with the rise in the use of online collaborative tools:
Wave’s primary feature was to let users collaborate in real time, using an in-box-like interface that resembled a mix of Google’s Gmail Web mail service, and its Docs and Spreadsheets product. Each strand of messages, which could include text, links, and photos, was called a wave.
Snap!
In my view, the lack of user adoption rested largely with Google’s slow roll-out of the product. It’s difficult to use a collaborative tool when people you normally would collaborate with don’t have access to the product. It’s akin to opening a “family style” restaurant only to tell customers they can only eat one at a time.
It’s part of the reason why I never used the product beyond some early testing. Sure, there were people I knew that I had added as friends (largely from Twitter), but we were a cross-section of people that had no need for collaboration.
Did you use Google Wave at all? If so, was it extensive or did you just mess around and test it? If you use was more extensive, we’d love to hear about it. Also, do you agree the rollout had to do with its demise or was it something else?
Adam Lehman says
I don’t think the rollout was a problem. I think the rollout made the demise more dramatic. Google has tons of apps sitting around in labs that a few people are using but a big deal isn’t made about it.
I don’t even think so much of the rollout was Google’s fault, i think the intro video they did just went viral on them and expectations skyrocketed. Sure the developers claimed it would become the new way the internet operated, but what developer isn’t overly hyped around their own project?
I applaud their bravery in pumping out new products. Part of innovation is failing. If I ran Google, it’d be SUPER tempting to sit around and just continue to watch billions roll in without risking failure.
Jonathan Mayhak says
I used it as a bug/feature repo. It worked really well for me and the two other developers I mainly worked with.
Don Dudley says
Some friends of mine and I actually had a successful wave…
All that said, I remember almost begging for an invite I rarely used.
John Wilkerson says
I used Wave for one project with about 10 other people. It was supposed to help me keep track of some deadlines and be a central repository for all of our work. The problem is that I hardly checked it because it wasn’t part of my regular routine. That project has come to an end so I have no further use for Wave.
*Waves good-bye*
Graham says
I think the slow rollout had a lot to do with it’s downfall… but I don’t think that was only contributing factor. As you said, the idea was great. However… moving people away from the comfort that traditional emails bring them is going to be a hard sell. I know a lot of people that said, “why can’t I just hit reply to all?”
I played with Wave when it first came out… just because I was curious. I think you and I Jay are actually G-wave buddies. But my office mates never adopted it. So I had no one to really collaborate with through it.
Glad Google isn’t still trying to breathe life into it.
BenJPickett says
I think the roll out did play a part in it’s down fall. The issue is they based it off of invites like they originally did with gmail. Gmail worked well in that format because it didn’t attempt to change the way people emailed.
With Wave, attempting to change the way people collaborate and communicate on the web, and Google restricting access to the public for so long. Without much follow up beyond the big initial hype of the preview video people moved on, they forgot about it and continued to do things the way they always have.
When you want to build something to revolutionize how people work, you don’t give them the chance to forget about and you make sure that it’s easy for them to get in on it. A great example is Christ’s ministry. He didn’t close it off to anyone, he shared with anyone willing to listen and he chose a few to follow him and only a couple of those few he let in really close.
Let’s translate that into what happened with Wave. Google opened the Window to show something amazing then they closed it. They opened the back door inviting a few in, let them bring a few friends and closed the door. They didn’t put this on display for all to see and we lost interest. What’s more and I can’t verify this as fact for everyone invited to Wave but those I know that were using it were unable to contribute ideas for improvement, only report bugs and things that didn’t work. Google had this “ministry” too closed off to gain the momentum it needed.