I came across a couple of interesting articles that would be good follow-ups to my earlier post about the Google Wave Experiment . In this HBR Article, Karim Lakhani makes the case that by pulling the plug on Wave, Google has done a good job of managing the Innovation Process. It listened to its users, and based on the lack of adoption, decided to move on. I agree with the decision and the article’s assessment, yet my own thought (Lament?) is that the idea and the product could have been successful, had Google gone about it differently. They pulled the plug at the right time, but it could have been better launched, better managed so that it never got to a point where you had to pull the plug
Another link that I want to share is a post by WordStream (which I think has done a good job of attracting some traffic to itself using the buzz about Wave). Wordstream documents Google’s aborted experiments in the past few year.
The glaring thing in this list is, ofcourse, how Google could have “had” FourSquare like functionality, and maybe doesn’t have to play as hard a catch-up as it is doing now, in dealing with Facebook’s threat. I heard / read somewhere that Google is becoming the Microsoft of the 90s. I just hope that doesn’t become the case. Good Luck GOOG.
Infographic by WordStream