Products · Product
Google Wave
Raised as a usability problem by 99 people on Hacker News over 18 years (2009–2026), in 73 threads.
No issue was raised by at least 3 people in 3 threads this year.
No issue was raised by at least 3 people in 3 threads in the last 5 years.
Every issue, all time, most people first
Interface very slow to respond, especially in FirefoxUnreviewed
20092026- Browser-based app was slow, so the user experience was terrible2018-02-18
- UI is slow and behaves unlike the desktop apps it imitates2014-03-30
- UI is extremely slow to interact with, especially in Firefox2011-02-15
Users cannot tell what the product is for or why to use itUnreviewed
20092026- Product was confusing, distracting and hard to use2024-05-09
- Confusing to use and unclear what its purpose was2023-05-10
- Wave was unusably slow because developers only tested on high-end hardware2020-12-24
Interface confusing, leaving users feeling lostUnreviewed
20092026- UI was confusing and tried to do too much at once2024-03-27
- UI is a mess, making the product hard to use and understand2019-01-25
- Confusing UI with no apparent use case for average users2018-10-10
Unreviewed issues were grouped by machine: Claude Haiku labelled each comment as a usability complaint, named what it's about and summed up the problem in a line, and a small model grouped similar problems. Nobody has checked them by hand. Expect mistakes.
The newest 50 complaints
- Wave's core ideas were sound but its user experience was poor2026-02-15
- Thin, confusing threaded chat UX made its purpose unclear to people2026-02-15
- Totally unusable from the start, too JavaScript-heavy and slow on average machines2025-12-30
- Impossible to keep up with nested, constantly updated hierarchical threads2025-10-12
- UX so convoluted that users found it hard to use2025-05-12
- Product was confusing, distracting and hard to use2024-05-09
- Required careful attention on where to fork or split discussions2024-05-06
- UI was confusing and tried to do too much at once2024-03-27
- Confusing to use and unclear what its purpose was2023-05-10
- Each person's edits trapped in separate boxes, not a fluid shared document2021-11-03
- Very slow and unusable in practice, so people found it hard to use2020-12-26
- Wave was unusably slow because developers only tested on high-end hardware2020-12-24
- Impossible to come back to a Wave and follow the flow of thought2020-12-22
- Too amorphous; no guided workflows, so users must invent their own conventions for each task2020-04-08
- Generalized trees require too many clicks to reach things2019-08-23
- Linking, sharing and addressing tools have a terrible interface2019-08-23
- UI is a mess, making the product hard to use and understand2019-01-25
- Too slow, clunky and complicated to use2018-11-22
- Google Wave was slow, complicated, and its live typing was distracting2018-11-22
- Buggy execution made the product basically unusable2018-11-22
- Confusing UI with no apparent use case for average users2018-10-10
- Page is visually cluttered with too many avatars and icons2018-10-09
- Threaded conversations wouldn't collapse and contributions gave inconsistent results2018-02-23
- UI hangs and bugs get stuck needing a page reload2018-02-23
- Clunky user experience and performance problems made the product hard to use2018-02-18
- Browser-based app was slow, so the user experience was terrible2018-02-18
- Never clicked for the commenter; the tool felt clunky to use2018-02-18
- Custom scrollbars are awkward on desktop, designed for netbooks and mobile instead2018-02-18
- Bloated app that was practically unusable in Firefox due to slow JavaScript2018-01-22
- Unintuitive UI made it hard for others to adopt2017-05-18
- UI was so slow it was practically unusable on netbooks2016-10-08
- Team members must sign up and wait for approval before joining2016-05-29
- Usability was horrible and the product was ridiculously buggy for the team2014-04-04
- UI is slow and behaves unlike the desktop apps it imitates2014-03-30
- Users can't tell what the product is for or why to use it2013-05-01
- Scroll bar was badly reimplemented and the product was ungodly slow2013-05-01
- Extremely slow and unresponsive web app, with too many unrefined features crammed in2013-05-01
- Other people can edit your messages, making communication confusing2013-03-17
- Interface was so confusing that people found it unusable2012-12-03
- Tiny icons hide features and reply links are awkward to reach2012-09-11
- Can't tell where they are or what actions do; clicking makes things jump or disappear2012-09-10
- The interface was horrible and hard to use2012-07-26
- Nearly unusable on low-end or old computers due to stability problems2012-05-28
- Bogged down and unintuitive user interface2012-04-15
- Toolbar clutters the small netbook screen and the UI changed for the worse2011-11-26
- Users found it too hard to use and didn't know what to do with it2011-10-12
- Cluttered, complex interface with two same-width columns; hard to understand2011-07-04
- Nobody could figure out what Wave was for; it was glitchy and slow2011-06-30
- UI is extremely slow to interact with, especially in Firefox2011-02-15
- UI was complicated and slow to use, especially in browsers2011-02-15