Etherpad vs Google Wave

So, the online service for real-time document collaboration, EtherPad, created by ex-Googlers, now goes back home where it was born - to Google. The goal of this purchase - is to utilize some EtherPad technologies in Google Wave and attract talents back to the company to work on the project, which will change the world. Yesterday, as soon as the deal was finalized, EtherPad developers (probably prompted by the new owners) posted to their blog, that the service wouldn't allow to create new accounts and documents any more and on March 31 EtherPad will be closed. Of course, the users were disappointed with this decision (see the comments). And after that Google remembered about one thing, that is more important for them than this new purchase - the trust in SaaS.

On September 30th Google will start sending 100000 Google Wave invitations. Only three months have passed since this super-service presentation, but during this time third-party developers already implemented some of its original ideas. Not so long ago the team email service Zenbe copied the "wave" idea in its Shareflow, and today the real-time document collaboration tool, EtherPad announced "playback" feature, that is one of the most exciting Google Wave inventions. It allows you to watch the document creation and changing history just like watching a movie.

An open source software engineer, Mohamed Mansour, has created an extension for Google+ Hangouts - Hangout Pad for Google+, which allows you to collaborate on the text (or program code) while communicating in video chat. Although this extension is still to buggy, it's very interesting for several reasons. First, it doesn't use the official Google + API (because it doesn't exist so far). Hangout Pad is a plug-in for Google Chrome browser and embeds into Hangouts video chat using a complex hack (via Google Shared Spaces and Google Wave protocol). However, this tool shows the opportunities of expanding Google Hangouts (beware Skype!). The collaboration window (in this case the code editor) is located above the user video streams and it can contain anything. In addition, it is a cool demonstration of the future integration between Google Hangouts and Google Docs.

Recently the new project appeared in Google Labs - Google Shared Spaces. Judging by the title, it would be a perfect add-on for Google Apps. Because after cutting Google Groups there is no more convenient way to quickly create a shared space (with  wiki, calendar, tasks, files, discussions). However, meanwhile Google Shared Spaces provides only the library of gadgets that were created for Google Wave (for example, "Sudoku", "Poll", "Map", "Whiteboard", etc). Only difference is that now you can use these gadgets not in "waves" but as stand-along objects on separate pages. You can create a shared pace using any gadget, invite co-workers and collaborate there. Each gadget contains built-in chat, so you will be also able to communicate.

Google has published its plan concerning the Google Wave. And this plan has returned us to the optimism, which we had after the first presentation of this revolutionary product. The company will release an open-source version Wave in a Box, which can be installed on your own server. This version will include the core functionality of the Google Wave and will support all necessary tools for developers - gadgets, robots and data API. Thus, instead of the single SaaS service, we will have a large number of corporate Wave servers, which can exchange data via the open Wave-protocol. And the further Wave development will be implemented by the companies and users themselves. Probably, this new strategy will be even more appropriate for the main goal of Google Wave - to kill Email.

Today, Google has announced that it stops further development of its revolutionary collaboration service Google Wave. The official reason - "service has not seen the user adoption we would have liked". Two months ago Google Wave was opened to public and included into Google Apps, but apparently, not too many people gave it a second chance after not successful beta-testing. Google Wave will continue to exist, but in the future it may be closed - i.e. the service will be in the same state, as Google Notebook (although still with new user registration). For those who use the service, Google plans to open source the code of the main modules (so that they could restore the basic functionality on its own servers) and provide tools for migrating data from Google Wave. And now about why this occurred with the service that was supposed to change the world:

Pretty silently (not like when beta testing was started) the revolutionary service Google Wave has been opened to a public and added to the business suite of Google Apps. Interest towards Google Wave has been reducing since the release of this service (about a year ago). The primary reason for this is its complexity compared to the direct competitor - E-mail. Besides Google Wave appeared to be buggy during testing and scared even geeks. However, now Lars Rasmussen, the Wave project manager, argues that Google Wave is ready for high load and performs fast enough. In addition, developers have simplified adding comments and search for new changes in wave. They also have corrected the lack of integration with email - you can now set the email-notifications about changes in waves (although you can't add comments in the opposite direction - from the email).

Do you still remember Google Wave? This is the super-service which is going to change the world. Why it hasn't done this yet? Because it's too complicated, so bugs will be being fixed for a long time and people will need more time to learn how to work with it. Google Wave was introduced as an alternative to Email. Instead of cumbersome email-correspondence all messages are located on the same page. Great idea, but first, the creators underestimated the people's affection to e-mail, and secondly, they overloaded this page with too many features. Unlike Google Wave, Threadbox is going to be simpler and works perfectly together with the e-mail.

Collaboration is not the primary specialization of SAP, so the appearance of 12Sprints, an enterprise Google Wave alternative, is pretty surprising. Even more surprising is that 12Sprints - is a SaaS application, and SAP is not very good in this sphere. As you know, their primary SaaS solution, Business ByDesign - is delayed for almost 3 years because of the SaaS platform problems. Unlike it, 12Sprints quickly entered the public beta stage (and everyone can use it) that is also very unusual for SAP. Usually they provide only Powerpoint presentations without screenshots. So SAP is making progress in this new field, though 12Sprints in general loses in comparison to Google Wave.