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I upvoted you, but I disagree that Wave didn't solve a useful problem. In my opinion, it solved some key collaboration problems. The problem was that it was mar

I upvoted you, but I disagree that Wave didn't solve a useful problem. In my opinion, it solved some key collaboration problems. The problem was that it was marketed as an engineering project, instead of a consumer product. Google positioned Wave as a new communication platform that would replace email, and that was just too much for users to wrap their heads around. Nobody could find a good reason to stop using email and switch to Wave. Google should have targeted the much smaller use case of document collaboration, even if the technology was capable of handling more, just to show people how they can start using the technology right away without having to change too much of their existing workflow. It's a classic example of the engineers letting their dreams get too big and forgetting to focus on the immediate problem they started with. Wave could have easily been saved by a better marketing team. Ironically, it seems Google has too many smart engineers, and has lost touch with what the average user needs or wants.

Travis 16y ago
We tried using Wave for our startup. Really, we did. We tried using it as a collaborative tool, as an communications tool, and as a toy. The bottom line was that we found we'd rather share a Word doc via DropBox, or send an email via gmail, than try to use the clunky, slow, confusing interface. In my experience it was the product that failed. YMMV.
- guptaneil 16y ago
  It was slow and clunky, but that's something I forgave since it was still a preview and I assumed it would be fixed given more time. I'm talking about the core concept of Wave when I say the main problem was marketing. Obviously the product still needed development work, but it was on the right track IMO. It fit into my workflow very nicely, and I definitely miss it. I would love to see somebody take the open sourced code and release a more simplified, targeted version for group collaboration.
  - deleted 16y ago
    [deleted]

Travis 16y ago

We tried using Wave for our startup. Really, we did. We tried using it as a collaborative tool, as an communications tool, and as a toy. The bottom line was that we found we'd rather share a Word doc via DropBox, or send an email via gmail, than try to use the clunky, slow, confusing interface. In my experience it was the product that failed. YMMV.

guptaneil 16y ago
It was slow and clunky, but that's something I forgave since it was still a preview and I assumed it would be fixed given more time. I'm talking about the core concept of Wave when I say the main problem was marketing. Obviously the product still needed development work, but it was on the right track IMO. It fit into my workflow very nicely, and I definitely miss it. I would love to see somebody take the open sourced code and release a more simplified, targeted version for group collaboration.
- deleted 16y ago
  [deleted]