I was a bit surprised to see that Google have halted development on Google "Wave" (for the announcement go here). Wave was only launched a year or so ago and offered a radically new way of communicating and interacting via the web. Probably too radical as it turns out as despite some very clever technology Wave never really caught the attention of users.

This will not only be disappointing for the Wave development team but the growing number of third parties that were building apps and gadgets for the platform. In particular it could come as a setback for Novell who have had Novell Pulse, a similar product intended for enterprise collaboration, under development designed to integrate with Wave. A statement from Novell here indicates that they are continuing with their plans for Novell Pulse which is pitched at the enterprise where they see a growing demand for better collaboration and networking tools (beyond email).

While this may seem a defeat for Google It takes some confidence to pull the plug on a project like this and shows just how fleet of foot the company is. Wave was pitched betwen corporate e-mail (it takes a while for businesses to adapt to new ways of working) and social networking sites such as Facebook. I don't think it was that Wave was no good, far from it, but it's competition is currently too well entrenched, particularly in the consumer space. Google realises this and, having developed technology in the Wave project that will no doubt turn up in other products, has decided to move on. Can't wait to see what they come up with next.

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