Has Google Stepped Over The Line?

In regards to privacy... some people have had it with Google.....
And to some extent.... they should be upset.... Here is the latest....

The Google Wave That Crashed

19 by MG Siegler on Aug 10, 2010
When I first heard the news that Google Wave was dead last week, I was surprised. I wasn’t surprised because it was a thriving, successful product (obviously, it wasn’t). I was surprised because of the gushing I heard about it from within Google leading up to and immediately following its introduction. To hear them tell it, this was the future. So I was obviously surprised that they only gave the “future” one year to prove itself. And that’s being generous.

Obviously, I knew part of that gushing was the same bullshit hype and marketing that any company applies to any new product. But it really did seem as if some key executives — everyone from Vic Gundotra to Sergey Brin — were genuinely excited about Wave. And rightfully so. As I wrote at the time, it was ambitious as hell.

But my full quote on it, as remembered by Business Insider last week, is more fitting:

It’s ambitious as hell — which we love — but that also leaves it open to the possibility of it falling on its face. But that’s how great products are born.

Obviously, Wave ended up falling on its face. It crashed, as it were. No great product was born.

But I’m getting the nagging feeling that it crashed because Google just didn’t handle it properly. Was it hard to understand? Yes. But so what — so is email when you really stop to think about it. Did it solve a problem? No. But so what — neither does Twitter.

I think Wave is simply a case where Google’s get-it-out-there-early mentality failed. Because the product was somewhat complex and Google itself didn’t know what to do with it, or how to pitch it, it flopped. It really is that simple.

In my view (obviously, with the benefit of hindsight), Wave should have been an experimental productivity tool that was wrapped into Google Docs. It should not have been billed as some sort of next generation communication tool for the masses. At least not at first.

Or, if Google really wanted to try and shove it in peoples’ faces in that way, they should have done what they did with Buzz, and crammed it into Gmail.


Read the rest of this original article here....
http://techcrunch.com/2010/08/10/google-wave-death/

Posted by Ted Cantu, and icantu media