14 DAY TRIAL // News of Google Wave's early demise came as a surprise to most people, but didn't create much of a backlash. Which pretty much proves the point Google was making, Wave just wasn't used that much.
Wave was actually seeing quite a bit of activity, just not enough by Google standards. So Google decided to stop all development on the project and will shut down the servers as well.
But not just yet, according to an update from the Wave team, the service will be available until at least the end of the year.
Of course, this much was known since Google first made the announcement. But the fact that you'll be able to export your Wave data is new, even if not that surprising.
"Some of you may have seen a post on the official Google blog several weeks ago about some changes to the Wave project, and we wanted to let you know that since then we've been hard at work figuring out all the details of the next steps," Lars Rasmussen, one of Google Wave's creators, wrote.
"We're looking at ways to continue and extend Wave technology in other Google products, open sourcing more of our code and providing support for our loyal users and Apps customers," he added.
Google is making just two announcements, none very surprising, but very few promises. Basically, Google says that Wave will live on for 2010 and that you'll be able to get your waves out by that time.
Rasmussen also says that more announcements will be made in the coming weeks. What you can expect is the open-sourcing of more Wave technologies which should ensure that Wave severs will spring up from various third-parties.
The project may even get traction with a core following and Wave, which has been described as "ahead of its time" and "a solution looking for a problem," may eventually become a popular collaboration tool.