Google Wave
Originally revealed to the world in 2009, Google Wave would go on to revolutionize how we call, communicate, work, and interact online. It remains an indispensable tool to this day, but could its runaway success story soon be coming to a conclusion? One of the most interesting updates Apple is bringing to iPadOS 16 is a new real-time collaboration tool called Freeform that gives a group of people on a FaceTime call a single shared canvas where they can share notes, images, sketches, and even edit or markup others’ contributions. It turns the iPad and Apple Pencil into an internet-connected digital whiteboard, and could be the next great collaboration tool.
Update: I’ve been informed by my editors that Google Wave was actually killed off by Google itself 11 years ago, just two years after its debut, because no one could figure out what it was for or why they’d want to use it. Freeform still looks kind of neat, though.
