Google Killing 'Wave' Over Lack of Interest

Unveiled last year amid much fanfare, Wave was supposed to revolutionize the way people communicated online by letting them exchange messages in real-time and collaboratively edit documents. It was regarded by some in the tech community as part email, part Twitter and part instant messaging.

But the service was confusing to many prospective users and will now join a long list of failed projects that Google has launched over the years as it pushes to expand beyond its core online search advertising business.

"Wave has not seen the user adoption we would have liked. We don't plan to continue developing Wave as a standalone product," Google Senior Vice President of Operations Urs Hölzle said in a blog post.