What is Google Wave?

Google Wave is a mash-up of online communications tools to make it easier for people to work and communicate online. It’s a web application and computing platform designed to bring together social networking, IM, email and wiki — all with a collaborative focus and all working in real time.

 The folks at Google describe Google Wave as:

 “a new model for communication and collaboration on the web,”

“what email would look like if it were invented today”. 

Dave Coursey of PC World says “Google Wave as a mash-up of chat, e-mail, and document sharing, it’s really something else: Google Wave could be the Twitter that everyone really wants. Maybe it’s the Facebook, too.”

 Many Bloggers say Google Wave is more like creating a bunch of independent online social networks that are based on a marriage of email and instant messaging.

Writing a Wave is similar to typing text into Gmail, Google Docs, or a blog. A Wave acts like an instant message, except that other Wave participants see each character as it’s typed. A Wave is equal parts conversation and document, allowing people to communicate and work together quickly at any time with richly formatted text, photos, videos, maps, and more.

 Watch the Google Wave “first look” video from early 2009

How do I sign up for Google Wave? You have to wait til late 2009 when it’s launched.