Google Wave obituary
If the death of Michael Jackson was a shock to the wider world, then the death of Google Wave is having a similar effect on those in the digital industry.
It wasn’t that we didn’t expect it to happen in some form one day, but just that Google so quickly and curtly killed off Wave to a group of assembled reporters yesterday.
How would Google Wave’s obituary or funeral dedication read?
I think I’d go with the below…
Google Wave, you were a tool ahead of your time…a misunderstood soul in a sea of communication, dwarfed by giants such as Twitter and ‘good old email’.
I’m sorry that we didn’t always understand what it was you were trying to achieve in the short run, but I for one could see where you might have taken us in the longer term, had your life not been cut so brutally short.
You were a good friend to all that knew you, provided that they too were Google products, and a pleasant, if slightly awkward acquaintance to everyone else (namely Internet Explorer and Firefox).
You were always the one who thought you could change the world, and the world of online communication is now a poorer place without you. You are gone, but you will not be forgotten – you will leave a legacy. I am sure that in a few years time we will look back on your time with us and laugh about how ‘you started it all’ and how foolish we were not to take you seriously.
I’ll never forget the good times that we had together, most notably that first five minutes of our relationship during which time you didn’t crash once.
You were a stubborn friend and a bit of a tease too. Remember that time you told me I could only introduce you to 30 people, only to provide me with another 50 invitations the following day? Oh how we laughed!
You will live on in other forms my dear friend, thanks to that Opensource donor card you were carrying at your death. I’m sure that parts of you, including drag-and-drop and character-by-character live typing will live on in other applications.
But now, let me end this by saying I hope you rest in peace, and I hope you are up there dancing in the cloud with all those we have lost previously, including Google Squared, Google Answers, Google Radio, Google Lively, Google Health, Google Notebook and Dodgeball to name but a few.
Good bye Google Wave and thank you.
Posted August 5th, 2010
