Google Wave: [insert wave-related pun here]

By now you've probably heard at least some mention of the latest buzz washing over the Internet: Google Wave. If you haven't heard, then my blog has a purpose! Rather than bore you with puns about catching the wave, surfing the Web, getting on the same wavelength, and so forth, I'll try to get right to the point.

I've been hearing about Wave for weeks or months now. It sounded useful, but I really hadn't heard a lot, and I was skeptical. Cliff of GSPN.tv recommended in his Social Media Serenity podcast that everyone watch the entire 80-minute video Google has posted about Wave. I worked my way through it over two or three days [insert parenthetical A.D.D. joke here], and when I finished, I was finally as excited as everyone else. Well, almost as excited—some of you need to step away from the Internet for a while. I mean that in the nicest way possible. Nothin' but love.

There have been a lot of great web apps in the last few years, and not all by Google. What makes Wave different? I'll get to that in a minute, but first, here's a quick video summary of what you can do with Wave.



Like the video says, there's far more that you can do with Wave than what the video mentions. However, the reason I believe this could be so revolutionary is that Google hasn't just created a tool, but also a protocol. Companies other than Google will be able to create Wave servers that can inter-operate with all other Wave servers in the world. New interfaces can be designed for working with Waves. "Wave" could become a universal term, like "email." Of course, all of this may be way down the road, but the potential is there. For now, using Wave will mean adding one more Inbox to our lists of places we check messages, but in the future, we could be checking our Waves instead of our email. If Internet protocols and standards interest you (read: if you are really geeky), check out www.WaveProtocol.org.

Google has also made Wave largely opensource and created a great set of APIs for developers to tap into in order to extend Wave's functionality. In other words, it could replace more than just email. Of course, it could also just be the beginning; a precursor to something else. Regardless of Wave's reach, I believe we're catching a glimpse of the future of the Internet—a merging of old-school tech, like email, and the new web tech we've all come to know and love.

I can't offer any kind of first-hand review, because so far I'm high and dry in terms of being invited to try Wave, so I'll close with Google's 80-minute, in-depth video.

What?