Google ends Wave

Was really dissapointed when I found out that Google has decided to stop developing the Google Wave as a standalone product. Read their announcement on the Google blog.

I guess I am among the only few geeks who thought this project was amazing. Read my post "Google wave as a collaborating tool" which I wrote in March this year.

However, it was probably the right choice for Google as I know of only a few friends who have signed up and I hardly use it myself. As an online friend told me "Google Wave is great if one have a friend to collaborate with, else it's pretty much meaningless."

I tried to get other friends sign up but they thought that it was too complex and that they preferred to use Google documents or email each other back and fourth the old fashioned way. I am not really sure why it never took off. I guess poor publicity might be a reason - most of the people I talked to have never heard of it. Many of them confused it with Google Buzz. A lot of guys who had heard of it but never used it, didn't really know what it was for or were not aware of the amazing features including "drag-and-drop and character-by-character live typing".

Anyway, the site is still up (up to at least the end of the year according to their update). I was thinking of getting my students to use it for their collaborative projects next term but I guess. it's back to Facebook where literally everyone has an account.