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Google has announced that it will no longer develop Google Wave after disappointing adoption of the communication technology.
Writing in on the official Google blog, Google senior vice president Urs Hölzle said that the site would be maintained for the rest of the year while the technology itself would be extended and adopted in other Google products.
Wave was a product of Google’s Australian research operations, the same team which created Google Maps. The new communication system initially saw a great deal of enthusiasm for the innovative approach which includes real-time typing, embedded mini applications, threading and mutually editable content as well as a history playback function.
However Hölzle said the service had failed to gain popularity beyond "numerous loyal fans". Wave had been criticised as being "unfinished" despite Google badging the service as a "Labs" preview, Wave often l acked basic necessary features missing such as controls on post edit permissions.
"Wave has taught us a lot, and we are proud of the team for the ways in which they have pushed the boundaries of computer science. We are excited about what they will develop next as we continue to create innovations with the potential to advance technology and the wider web."
Google’s statement of intent to roll the Wave technology into other Google products will boost speculation that Google communication technologies like Wave and more popular services such as Google Buzz will resurface to be found in the much rumoured unannounced "Google Me" social networking site.
Google international software engineering teams continue to roll out new features in other products with Google Buzz frequently experiencing added features. Google also announced today (Gmail blog) that the Internet giant’s web Gmail service now had the ability to drag links and files directly to the user’s desktop when using the Chrome browser.
