No doubt it had its flaws. But those could have been worked out. Unfortunately, it was as if Google wanted to say this is how YOU are going to work, and wasn't interested in the possibility that they could be mistaken.

File under: great idea! Poor execution.

The latter was so bad I'm still surprised no one else picked up the idea and ran with it. It wasn't the idea that failed. It was the brand / company / org that conceived it.