Google Wave shuts down for the majority of web users

Google has finally shut its Wave tool and told web users they can no longer access their group discussions and collaborative projects from the service, unless they are Chrome browser users.

Internet Explorer and Firefox users trying to access the Wave website are now told the hosting servers for the service have been closed completely.

"You will no longer be able to get to your waves," says the status page.

However, Google has chosen - for the time being - to allow users of its own browser, Chrome, to access the read-only version of Google Wave.

Google could not immediately be reached to confirm how much longer Chrome users would have this access.

Google told Wave users last November they would only be able to access the service in a read-only version from the 31 January to the 30 April this year.

After this period, the web giant had warned the project would be axed.

Its read-only users could still export their waves using the PDF export feature, read existing waves, or export their waves to an open source project called Walkaround.

Google Wave was one of the firm's first major moves into the social market, before Buzz and Google+.

Wave was Google's attempt to "rethink email" by allowing web users to collaborate and discuss ideas through a hosted conversation, rather than through multiple emails back and forth.

The platform was launched as an invitation-only service at the 2009 Google I/O conference. Wave proved popular with developers, but failed to generate much interest in the wider online market.