This is way out of character, but I have to rant about Google Wave for a minute. As users know, it's being discontinued (http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/08/update-on-google-wave.html). Not totally shocking. There is enough out there to suggest what the problems were, and users are familiar with the glitchiness of certain aspects of Wave. At the same time, I have to say that there is nothing like it, and I want to keep using it, assuming that it will evolve and get better. Yet, the aspects that I really like should simply be integrated with Google Groups. One of the fundamental problems with Wave was that it wasn't integrated with everything else Google was doing. Groups (referring mainly to Discussions, the message board feature) is as bare bones as can be and would benefit from my favorite features of Wave. Two birds, one stone, as far as I can see. Well, more than two birds. Wave also suffered from being difficult to understand for new users. Adding some features onto the well-established Groups interface, though, would likely reduce confusion, much like Google already adds to and tweaks its existing platforms on a regular basis. So, here's how I think Groups should work:

• Starting a new Discussion should be like starting a new Wave--you choose from within the members of your Group who will have access to that particular thread. The complaint about Wave being "closed" was nonsensical. Groups has always been closed, and no worse for it; you always had to send an invit. if you didn't want it public. The brilliance of Wave is the ability to manage work flow within particular, closed groups. Adding this feature to Groups, integrated with Gmail contacts as it is, allows you to add anyone to the Group/Discussion rather than only Wave subscribers, indeed making it more open in that sense. The main point, though, is that Groups is currently flat; you're in or you're out. Why not make it more dynamic rather than forcing me to create a new group for each intra-group subthread?

• Discussions should function as live chat. They've clearly figured out how to do this well. It takes nothing away for the way the Discussions have always worked, and it adds a great deal in terms of real-time workflow and archiving. As with Wave, this should include the option to edit a comment after posting it.

• Users should be able to reply to specific comments in the Discussion thread with indented reply bubbles a la Wave, rather than only add to the bottom of the total Discussion. This would do away with the ridiculous need to delete the "Reply" text when it is superfluous or use the "Show quoted text" link to follow what is going on. The non-linear nature of Wave was sometimes frustrating when a lot was going on at once, but the "Next Wave" button fairly well took care of that, and it allowed entire subconversations to take place in a way that made them easier to follow after the fact--and after the fact is what Discussions majors in at the moment.

• Discussions should be more integrated with the other facets of Groups (Pages, Files), a la Wave's apps. There are a thousand ways to do this. I'm just pointing out that it's a good idea implemented over at Wave that should be reflected in the platforms they are actually backing with success. In fact, it should be more integrated with Gmail. I already get a notice from Wave in my Gmail inbox when activity takes place. Why do I need to log into another inbox? I also get notices for Groups activity. Let's turn the "Next Wave" button into "Next Discussion" and integrate it with Gmail's inbox. Simplify. Equally, Pages/Files should not be redundant with Google Docs. Docs has more functionality, and I have to imagine that it is possible to reduce the fragmentation and redundancy and make Pages/Files more useful at the same time.

• Include the third-party app. interface. Why does Groups have to remain vanilla?

• Forget timeline! It was cumbersome and glitchy, and, I'm guessing, expensive.

Okay, I feel better. Hopefully Google is paying someone somewhere to scour the web for helpful feedback. If so, Google person, thanks for reading. And thanks, Google, for generally rocking. Just don't stop.