Google Wave

2009 - 2010

Wave was supposed to be the ultimate communication tool. It was to replace email for better collaboration and group communication. Users created a wave (a document) where several people could communicate with each other in real-time. The wave became a collection of conversations, images, videos, and links. But the service was too ambitious, hard to learn, and barely an improvement over regular email. It was also ugly. Very ugly. Google Wave died before anyone had understood what it was or how to use it.

Additional info:

Infoworld - Why Google Wave failed: Too complicated, no fun

Techcrunch - The Google Wave That Crashed

From Google themselves: