Google Wave finally bit the dust last week.
The much-hyped collaboration tool, which never made it out of beta, seemed as if it might have a lot of trip-planning applicability, among its many potential uses.
Google CEO Eric Schmidt, according to various accounts, told the media and other attendees at the Techonomy conference in Truckee, Calif., Aug. 4:
"What happened was we liked the UI and we liked a lot of the new features in it but it didn't get enough traction. So we're taking those technologies and applying them to new technologies that are not announced. So basically we'll get the benefits of Google Wave but not as a separate product."
Many travel techies were excited about the Google Wave platform when it surfaced last year.
Those of us who collaborate on projects from remote locations thought this would be a great way to do things in real time.
Indeed, Google Wave co-creator Lars Rasmussentold eWEEK that one of Wave's most beneficial features was enabling groups of students, teachers and programmers, for example, to collaborate and get "work done."
But in the end, Google Wave proved to be too clunky and, frankly, a less than satisfying user experience.
Google Wave's demise follows another misstep, the launch of Google Buzz, which disappeared in a storm over privacy concerns.
Google Wave had 1 million users at some point.
I guess Google didn't think that’s enough.
Perhaps Google will add some of Wave's collaborative functions to Google Docs in the future. Imagine it as a freeware version of Microsoft’s SharePoint.
Or perhaps some of Wave's features will reappear in the social media platform that Google is reportedly working on.