Google today
announced that they are discontinuing their social networking software, "Google Wave". This technology was soft-launched with much fanfare in the geek community, as you could only join in the beta testing if you knew someone and got an invitation. All over discussion boards worldwide, people begged and pleaded for access to something they couldn't have. When it did get released to the public it really wasn't a big deal, at least not in any of the places I was looking. To be honest I really wasn't sure whether it even had been released publicly, although I vaguely remember playing with it once. Perhaps it was a video.
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| Google Wave brainstorm feature |
The functionality was brilliant and allowed a lot of collaboration, for example the 'brainstorming' tool (right). You could type, or draw, and you don't have to press enter every time - it just comes up automatically.
Unfortunately the take-up of this product was far from Google's expectations, and they have had the courage to do what many others won't - gracefully move on.
They have acknowledged that it didn't do what they expected. They have decided not to keep pouring money into something that isn't working and most importantly, they have recognised that much of the technology that went into creating the product has been and will be useful elsewhere. Therefore, they took a risk and it didn't work, but they learned and grew from the experience. I will definitely be holding this up in the classroom.
Links:
Google's announcement introducing Wave
Google's announcement to discontinue Wave
