Google rethinks Etherpad

ETHERPAD users have been assured that the service will stay up and running for the foreseeable future.

The announcement marks a big change, as previously Etherpad was to cease to exist, projects were to close, and teams would be moved to Google's infant Wave development team.

However, in a blog post last Friday the firms said, "We are happy to announce that AppJet Inc. has been acquired by Google. The Etherpad team will continue its work on realtime collaboration by joining the Google Wave team." Nonetheless, users met the announcement with little enthusiasm.

One wrote, "This is the worst news ever. Google Wave is NOT an alternative to EtherPad. The clean design and, above all, the task specificity of EtherPad makes it vastly superior. I've been using Google Wave for over a month now and it just doesn't compare to the months of wonderful service and growth from EtherPad." Another added, "really bad news - etherpad is great - Wave is no substitute for it. Please keep etherpad or something similar as a tool in its own right".

Responding to this the firm has promised to keep Etherpad live and online until it is made open source. In a more recent blog post, former Etherpad CEO, Aaron Iba, explained, "Many of you were not super thrilled with the transition plan we announced in our last blog post, which I guess is really quite flattering." The post continues by explaining that the two firms had worked together on an agreement which would let users use and work on Etherpad, and will continue to do so until its source code is open sourced.

Both parties acknowledge that Wave does not have the same functionalities as Etherpad, nor do its users have invites to Google's online tool. However, they promised to give users access to the preview tool, and apologised for ruining anyone's day. "I am sorry for disrupting your productivity, and I hope that this new transition plan helps you out," Iba added. µ