History

Google Wave was released by Google on 28 May 2009 during the conference Google I/O, the biggest annual event of the company that brings together thousands of programmers.

This is a web application which mixes the concepts of mail services, instant messaging, wikis and social networking, all associated with a spell checker and an instant translator.


The fiasco

Google Wave is not without its problems. To begin with, it is quite complex to use for new users (where did the "user-friendly" go?).

Its operation is extremely slow and awkward, revealing a significant lack of agility. Google Wave lets you see the writing of users in real time, but... What is it for? To reveal the misspellings and grammatical errors of a user? Is it necessary?

Also, when multiple users edit a part of the wave, there is no way of knowing who has edited efficiently why. Result: a mess. Perhaps they should incorporate a wiki-style history to make things easier.

To say nothing of the aggregation of users to a wave without the consent of the other... Or the lack of integration with Gmail. In general, it seems difficult to find a place for Google Wave within the digital "life".


What have we learned?

This fiasco is another example that online success is usually found in applications that are fast, simple and also fun. Nobody, however, has the exact formula, even the most powerful like Google.