Our friend Google decided to rid itself of Wave, the collaboration tool or whatever it was that it developed. Wave never caught on. It represents one more item hoisted up Google’s flagpole in the hopes that someone would salute.
And so Google seems more and more like Microsoft, clumsily cluttering the Internet mindspace with more halfhearted endeavours. It is embarrassing to see such large companies flail. They can afford to, for a while, but it remains perplexing to watch.
Don’t you find it odd that Google could not come up with an elevator pitch for Wave? Seemingly, the people who developed Wave were so bound into it that they could not explain it to outsiders. Something about collaboration but why would one prefer Wave over, um, email, or Google Docs? What need out there did Wave fulfill?
Google provided Wave with the form of a promotion, but never gave voice to an actual, energized expression of Wave’s positive benefits. What was the motivation for this product? I am afraid it was less that it was a great tool for users than another way for Google to collect user data. I think users sniffed that out. Oh well, on to the next project.
No comments:
Post a Comment