It has been almost a year since Google Wave was released to the public. Unfortunately, this week Google announced they are “ceasing development” due to under performance. Crickets. Who didn’t see that coming? According to Mashable it was undeniable fate, “The move isn’t much of a surprise; adoption never seemed to materialize for Google Wave.” All the hype before the tool and no real interest. Did they set themselves up to fail? I’m sure we all logged on initially expecting another genius tool from Google, but sadly felt underwhelmed.

With the success of many of their other products, what’s the harm if one fails? Google Wave was just way ahead of it’s time.

The simplicity of the tool was masked with confusion, I mean what is a “wave” anyways?  According to Google, “A wave is equal parts conversation and document. People can communicate and work together with richly formatted text, photos, videos, maps, and more.”

With email booming in the last decade, half the population is still catching up! I never really found the “real world” application, felt like Gmail chat or “Gchat” as some like to call it, covered daily communication between friends, coworkers etc. If I needed to send a document, I just attach it in an email.

Why do you think it failed? What did you like about the project? Do you picture Google Wave or similar tools, to be the future of email?