I guess you all heard that Google Wave is dead. Or well, not really dead but Google stopped further development. More on that here.

The great start

I think most of us, and I say us as in us people who spend more time in front of computers than in front of real people, remember when it all started. The big awesome presentation at Google I/O . I heard rumors about people crying and celebrating with cookies and ice cream. It was an epic moment.
I saw the whole presentation myself and yes, it was awesome. I know I rushed to sign up for a test account and then I waited and waited and well… waited. Got frustrated and starting tweeting things like ”Ey! Gimme a wave-invite! *getting desperate*” Not that Google would listen but you never know.
After some time I got my wave-invite. Late. I started using it. I forced other people to use it. I quickly found a plugin that would give me notifications of updates on my waves. I noticed other people starting to use it. Then I noticed how they stopped using it. How it was forgotten. And now Google stopped development.

Was it a failure?

People say that Google will loose credibilty. People say that Google gave out invites too late. People say that it was a poorly designed overengineerd application ahead of it’s time. Well, yea. That’s what people say. Personally I would like to thank Google. I got motivated. I think a lot of other people also got motivated. And I think that is what most people who put judgement of Google (and predict the death of Buzz) have missed. Google inspires people. Noone knows to what extent.

No, it shouldn’t have been undone

I don’t regret the Wave thing. Doesn’t matter that it didn’t replace email. Doesn’t matter that millions of people didn’t get addicted to it. I think it was a great Google moment. Sure, people can argue and all but I, as a web developer, was proud when they gave that presentation. To speak frankly it actually is people working with web development that moves the web forward. That keeps improving the web. If nothing else I think Google inspired these people in a positive way to make greater things. I will always think of Google Wave as a great application.

/Ida