I think part of the reason Buzz hasn't caught on is the privacy debacle at the start. It left people with a bad association with Buzz, and that's not something that's easy to shake.
Wave I see mostly as an experiment. It can do some cool stuff, but I've never really had a use for it. I did see it used for streaming commentary the Google I/O keynote (courtesy of Lifehacker), and it worked fantastically for that. In fact, I'd say that was the nicest live coverage method I've seen. However, I personally still have not found a use for Wave.
If Buzz had had a really compelling user experience and killer features at the start then that's what the early media reaction would have been about.
Instead they launched a half-baked product, with high expectations because anything Google does immediately has a high standard to meet, and that let the unforced error they committed with privacy dominate the news.
Wave I see mostly as an experiment. It can do some cool stuff, but I've never really had a use for it. I did see it used for streaming commentary the Google I/O keynote (courtesy of Lifehacker), and it worked fantastically for that. In fact, I'd say that was the nicest live coverage method I've seen. However, I personally still have not found a use for Wave.