Social Media  Lessons Google Can Learn From Wave's Failure
Google Wave officially fizzled yesterday, following just over a
year of exaggerated hype and underwhelming performance.  From a
practical standpoint, ending Wave development makes a lot of
sense; why invest work hours and resources into an end product
that isn't being adopted and hasn't met expectations? However,
as we noted yesterday, the speed in which Wave (and we promise,
this is our last pun) wiped out is worth reflecting upon.  Why
did Wave fail and how can Google learn from this experience?
Wave started its life amidst a ton of hype, which, we'll admit,
Mashable played a role in encouraging. Buoyed by a brilliant
demonstration at Google I/O in May 2009, the anticipation for
end users was already in full effect by early summer.  I recall
last June, six or seven weeks before I started work at Mashable,
having dinner with some friends who had just attended a local
user group meeting that included an overview of Google Wave from
some of the atte