[dorkinspace]

Those 3 along with maps, ads, and a handful of others make up the list of "safe" Google products.

I agree with you though, it is the niche products that get shutdown. My point is that being an early adopter of Google products is a very risky move. Until a product is adopted by the masses and profitable, it should not be considered safe.

[at-fates-hands]

Back in the day, I used to be all in on the Google bandwagon. I was in on Wave, Buzz, Meebo and bunch of others. After a few years of cycling through the standard phases:

1) Wow this is really cool

2) Wow I'm starting to use this everyday

3) Wow my friends should know about

4) Google is killing this

Once you get over the idea their killing something you started to rely on and then you experience their "customer service" a few times you just wonder if its actually about trying to make the world a better place, or just adding revenue to their bottom line.

My conclusion a long time ago was not to use them for anything personal and FFS nothing I would have my business rely on.

[Izkata]

Several years later, Wave was especially disappointing to me: It was Slack, before Slack was a thing. They just didn't know how to market Wave, so no one knew why it was useful.

If Wave was first released a couple years later, with identical functionality, I think it would've done well.