Ever since the launch of Google Wave, I've used it a handful of times for both work and pleasure. We gave it a fair shake here at DVICE, trying to use it to plan projects. Just last week, some friends of mine used it to coordinate a dinner party. In both instances it was clumsy and awful.
When we
, it seemed like such an awesome idea. A service that combines email and chatting, wiki-like forums and an open-source environment for clever-types to crank out unique widgets? It sounds like a surefire winner, but there was one problem: Google's various services already did all that, and they didn't look as awful and ugly as Wave does. (I don't get to talk about it in the past tense, sadly, as it's still up and available for you to log in to.)
So, why has Google finally decided to pull the plug on Wave? "Wave has not seen the user adoption we would have liked," Urs Hölzle, senior VP for operations, wrote on Google's blog. "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."
That means that some of the features Google tried to make popular with Wave — we're guessing the widget support, for one — though hopefully Google will keep that godawful layout away from my precious Gmail.
For the fans of Wave out there, Google has vowed to help both of you out by developing tools though would extract your saved projects on Wave.
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Google Blog, via PCWorld
