Wave Goodbye

It seems awfully fast for Google to have pulled the plug on Wave.

It was only first launched in May 09 and out of beta May 2010. Most non-techies haven't even heard of it yet. New communication mediums don't take off overnight, they'd have been looking at decades for a reasonable level of adoption. If they'd pulled the plug on the world wide web that fast it would have barely been noticed by most people.

I liked the look of Wave, though I couldn't see how I would use it. Collaboration only really seems to work in a work environment, how many times have you needed to edit a document at the same time as your parents?

Likewise instant typing update, who needs it? I like the asynchronous nature of email, it lets me respond in my own time and likewise the people I contact. I don't use IM at home as it's too disruptive (if someone IMs me I feel I need to respond right now, I don't with email).

Some of the other features were good. Playback, for example, and much of the drag and drop, but most people have no need to edit things simultaneously. I suspect many of the component technology will make its way into other applications though.