Wave goodbye to Wave
Google's new social networking service, Google Wave, launched last year to a huge fanfare and and equally huge controversy over privacy. Many users complained that anyone befriending you on the service could then see personal contact details of everyone else of your address book.
The service was based around real-time character-by character chat typing, drag-and-drop file sharing and had a lot of potential. Sadly it was limited only to GMail users and didn't receive such a brilliant reception.
Now Google is pulling the plug before the service even gets out of beta. They've said they will keep the service going until the end of 2010 but then it's all over.
One of the biggest problems with Wave I felt personally was that is was clearly intended as mass-user service but the limitations of the beta, which was invitation only, just never allowed this to happen. The service just looked like a blank page.
Either way it looks as though Google's attempt to challenge the mighty Facebook has failed, at least for now. We can be certain that Google's not finished yet, neither is Microsoft which is constantly updating and expanding it's Live service.
But now we wave a fond goodbye to Google Wave, bon voyage.
Google will shut down Wave in two stages. The first will turn the site read-only on January 31, 2012. While contents remain accessible for the time being, no new contents can be added to Wave after that date.
Users have options to export their date as PDF documents using built-in functionality. There is also the Walkaround project that allows you to import your waves.
The second stage begins and ends on April 30, 2012. At that day, Wave is shut down by google which means that data won't be accessible anymore after that point.
Additional information about the status are provided by Google on this support page.
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On the official announcement page they say, “Wave has not seen the user adoption we would have liked”. How did they expect a large user-base for an “invite only” service?
It’s kind of as disappointment they stop even before it’s out of beta. But then I gotta admit nobody really used it as we should, because all friend don’t have it. This shows how important the way you launch such a revolutionary tool is, on whether it makes a chance to become a success or not.
I would have agreed with you if it was another company that’s attempting to challenge Facebook , but you’re talking about Google here , so prepare yourself for surprises . Believe me , this company doesn’t give up easily . Considering the fact that Facebook has a lot of disadvantages , Google has a very good opportunity to win this “war ” .
Hey Mike , if you wondering about the disadvantages and problems of Facebook that the Google Me is going to solve then have a look at this book authored by one Google’s employees :
http://www.slideshare.net/padday/the-real-life-social-network-v2
Regards
Muhammad Najem