Google Kills Wave
It failed because it was completely invisible.<p>Facebook spams your inbox. They <i>make sure</i> you know that you have an account and that people are trying to reach you (or tell the world about their cat, etc).<p>With wave, it's silent. There was activity on a wave I was following in January. I found out about it in March. Someone replied to something I said on July 21st. I'm only just finding out <i>now</i>. What kind of a communication tool is that? It's like they're selling a phone that can't ring.<p>The other UI and social issues were important but weren't fatal. If Google had actually <i>notified</i> users when they got new messages, they would have logged into wave, sent more messages and wave would have lasted longer.<p>Instead, messages were sent but never read, so Wave lost all the momentum it had.