Google Kills the Wave

Google has announced it is ending development on Wave, the cross-platform communication tool it launched with much fanfare at its I/O developer conference in May 2009. Google said in a post last night that "Wave has not seen the adoption we would have liked" and that elements of Wave's technology, including drag-and-drop and character-by-character live typing, are now as open source so users can "liberate their content from Wave".

Read more here.

Time Spent on Facebook, Gaming Surges

The time Americans spent on social media has surged 43% in the past year, leading a substantial shift in how the country spends its online time. That time spent online has also sent e-mail to third behind gaming, according to research by Nielsen Co. Online video and search also scored modest gains in share of online time. Time spent on internet portals such as Yahoo declined faster than anything but e-mail, according to Nielsen. Instant messaging also lost share of time at the PC, which was likely a result of increased use of mobile texting in part. Social-media usage also appears to be usurping some of the communications needs once reserved for e-mail and instant messaging.

Read more at Advertising Age.