Where will Google Take Social Media After the Demise of Google Wave and Google Buzz?

In 2009 Google Wave was heralded as a giant evolutionary step in how we would communicate and collaborate online. I admit to being one of the disciples of buzz who ate the hype and imagined a paradigm shift in how online communities would interact.  We were all wrong, but who knows what bricks Google Wave laid down for innovation towards the evolving road of how people use the Internet.

Google has officially closed the door on Google Wave and on Google Buzz. They were grand experiments, but even those of us who loved how Wave socialized email could not find a good use for it.  Everytime I started a wave or joined one it would fizzle within a few hours or a few days.  The functionality was cool, but web developers were the only ones who ever found productive uses for what was hailed as an amazing new productivity tool.

The good news of Google Wave crashing (sorry, I couldn't help  it) is that they have deepened their interest in social media.  Though this was a failure in the sense that conversations and communities weren't sustainable, Google has been rumored for awhile to be working on something to go head to head with Facebook.

The direction they are headed in now appears to be social gaming.  Besides buying Slide for $182 million and buying Zynga for $100 million, Google Me is rumored to be Google's foray into social networking through a gaming platform.  This is smart business since gaming has slipped from the #1 online activity to #2 behind social networking.  By combining the top two ways people like to spend their time online, and therefore the two areas where innovative advertising methods will continue to flourish, Google seems to be playing in a smart pool.

But how far social gaming can go is unknown.  Google may be able to generate niche communities based around specific games, but whether that can make the leap where Google Wave could not is still a question.

Not being a gamer myself, I can't see being affected by or interested in a 'social gaming Facebook' platform. That doesn't matter much since gaming is a very proven and lucrative market.  They'll probably do just fine without me as a customer and I'm thankful that Google has the resources to continue pushing innovation further and further.

So if you were Google and wanted to dominate a niche in social media what would you do?