About a year ago, Google launched Wave, an application for on-line real-time collaboration. Kind of IM on steroids. While it never reached a Facebook-level frenzy, it was at least partly supported by some big names: SAP, SalesForce, Novell.

This week, Google announced it was ending the project.

Mashable writer Christina Warren lists lessons that Google can learn from closing down its Wave application:

Lesson 1: Keep Expectations in Check

Lesson 2: Make Your Product Clear

Lesson 3: Launch When Ready

Lesson 4: Have Real Value

Learn From the Past

Warren implies that Google rushed to market and did not explain the product.

And where have we seen that before?!

Software manufacturers must balance the tension between the need to roll out new products (and new versions of existing products) to keep the money rolling in; some customers wanting the latest thing; and the other customers needs for stable products that deliver value.

Too often, in my view, Microsoft rushes to market with remarks like “this is the first release; we know it’s not completely finished; wait for v2″. But by the time the next version rolls around the keen person who started the idea has gone off to a new job, and a feature—or a whole product—becomes abandonware.

Footnotes:

Any number of other people are also writing ‘lessons learned’ pieces.

How many puns can headline writers write? ‘Wave crashing’, ‘Wave goodbye’, ‘it’s a wipeout’.

Yesterday, Julia Gillard was elected parliamentary leader of the Labor Party and sworn in as Australia’s newest Prime Minister.

The media has made much of her sex. There have been lots of “first female prime minister” stories. SBS, which ought know better, described the idea of “having a woman leader” as a “novelty”.

I’m interested in the way we seem squeamish about the W word. It’s OK to refer to Gillard as the “first female prime minister”, but I feel like I have yet to read that she’s the “first woman prime minister”.

So I went Googling. And I’m not impressed.

Searches on Google News reveal the following results:

• gillard female: 1,491 results
• gillard woman: 721 results

Based on what I’ve read, that’s not surprising. Roughly 2:1 using ‘female’ rather than ‘woman’. Next test:

• gillard first female: 1,552 results
• gillard first woman: 697 results

How can that be? How can a more restrictive search (‘gillard first female’) return more results than a less restrictive search (‘gillard female’)? Let’s try something else:

• gillard first female: 1,529 results
• gillard female first: 1,465 results

This is getting silly. I’m beginning to think that the number of results that Google says it finds is just a made-up random number.

But this does not detract from my quest: Why are we so afraid of calling someone a woman?

Sometimes, online shopping is the best thing since—umm—sliced bread. And sometimes, it’s just too hard.

I wanted to buy a Bamix hand-held mixer gadget thingo. Here’s how I went.

1. Kitchenware Direct sells one for $350. Free shipping. “Usually shipped within 24 hours.” Does that mean they have one or not? Too hard. Too expensive. Move on.
2. Online Kitchen advertises the machine. But when I try to order one I see a page “Shop is temporarily closed”.
3. Everten Online sells one for $297.95. Best price yet. But the item is “Temporarily unavailable”.
4. Bamix Shop sells one for $299. Can’t find any information about shipping costs. But it’s “In stock”. This looks OK. Add to cart. Proceed to checkout. I can order without creating an ‘account’. So far, so good. Then the next page:

   

   How do I choose between ‘free’ and $9.90? It feels like something’s wrong, and I’m confused. But I choose the ‘free’ option (well you would, wouldn’t you!) and proceed to see this:

   

   Huh? Where’s the ‘I just want to type in my credit card number and get on with this’ option?

   This is all too hard. Let’s try somewhere else.

5. Your Home Depot sells one for $299. Free shipping. No information about whether it’s in stock or will take 6 months to come by boat from Switzerland. But, what the heck. Let’s give this one a go. Off to the checkout. I have to create an account. Now, I have to wait for an email to confirm creation of the account. A lot of hassle for me when I want to give these people money.

   It took more than ten minutes for the email to arrive. When it did, the text included not only the user name I’d chosen but it included the password en clair. Good grief!

6. Peter’s of Kensington sells one for $307. I can calculate postage for my postcode ($11). No info on stock availability, which is a worry. But nevertheless, off to the checkout. Woo hoo! I can order without creating an account. Yep. Just one more screen and my kitchen whizzo thing is ordered. One minute later, I had a fully-compliant tax invoice in my email inbox.

Online shopping has been around for nearly 15 years. It’s a mature business. It’s not hard to create a good online shopping experience. So why do so many businesses stuff it up?

I suspect that it is not a coincidence that Peter’s of Kensington has been in business for at least 25 years (I first shopped there in person in about 1984). It’s a successful physical retail business. And I didn’t mind spending a few extra bucks for a good experience.