Back in December 2009 we blogged about the release of Google wave. In January 2010 we predicted its demise. Earlier this month Google abandoned Wave, its much-hyped social collaboration tool.
Technically advanced and ambitious it may have been, but it was also near impossible to use. However, it’s demise now clears the path for Facebook – who many predict will be destined to build the Web’s next wave.
Wave was a testament to Google’s technical prowess: A real-time communication platform that combined elements of instant messaging, e-mail and collaboration software. The only problem was that with its many dials and switches, mastering Wave was the web equivalent of programming your VCR . Add to this that few users took the time to understand the product, and you can begin to understand how mainstream adoption proved to be unattainable.
Google’s failure to develop engaging social services is more disastrous than it might seem at first. Social networking is no longer just a time-waster for young people, it now reaches all demographics and encompasses personalized search, highly targeted advertising and the red-hot social gaming trend.
As Facebook builds a user base of more than 500 million people, it also stockpiles the personal information required to provide more comprehensive ad targeting – and a more personalized search engine – than Google could ever hope to engineer through algorithms alone.
The graph above shows Google search volume for the term “Google Wave” over the past 12 months.
