I just got done watching the Google Wave Preview at Google I/O '09 I'll have to say, I think it is pretty nifty. Essentially, it is a mass communication device that is a cross between instant messaging, SMS, e-mails, and a forum. With Google Wave you can post text, pictures, documents, etc. for certain, if not all, people in your Google Wave friends list to see. These are all categorized into a "wave". This wave is essentially a forum for whatever document, text, etc. is contained inside of it. Upon seeing the wave your friends list can edit, comment, and somewhat personalize your wave contents. Your friends can pick apart the contents and comment on certain areas, which in turn can be commented by anyone you allow to. Creating a makeshift forum aspect. Your friends can also edit certain parts, as well as insert their own content. Intitally, I assumed this would be a huge hellish train wreck in which your work can be destroyed by anyone. In fact, you get to pick the people who are allowed to view and edit your wave. Also, at any point during the wave conversation you can decide to omit people from certain edits, comments, or information. To assume responsibility amongst editors, the wave keeps a record of the initial wave and then keeps track of who does what, at which time. Anyone viewing the wave can then look at a time line in which the wave will playback it self repeating the actions taken(edits, inserts, etc.) in the order they were inserted, by the person who inserted them. The author of the original wave is also notified when a change is made to their wave, so immediate action can be taken place. This prohibits flaming or spamming of any kind, since the tool to simply delete a person from the wave is an option. The great thing about all this is the real-time factor. Every time a person post something or edits something it is happening in real-time, viewable to all the participants in the wave itself. You actually get to see a person adding content or editing in your own window, while they are actually doing it. You can even see the person typing their comments as they are typing, letter by letter. This adds to the SMS/Instant Messaging factor and takes away from the dull waiting/refresh sequence involved in forums. Another great thing about Wave is that it saves all conversations in personal files(folders) so that anyone can view them in later times, and also so that you are able to back track and look at them. Too many wave files? Well there is a search device in which you can search for certain waves, searching by who was in the conversation as well as the topic. On a side note, the wave also uses a suped-up version of spell check. It takes into consideration the context of the word, along with the spelling, opposed to the usual matching of words from a dictionary. Google Wave can also be integrated into different Internet devices such as twitter and blogs and so on, so that you can use Wave without having to stay inside of the interface. I did not fully understand how that worked, but I assume it is still early to worry about that. Google Wave was also compatible with mobile devices so that you are not constricted to a computer constantly to use Wave.

All-in-all it seems useful. It is a combination of many communication devices, configured into a mass media outlet that is capable to simplify communication and outstretch the arms of communicating not only in general, but also information, in a variety of ways. And even thought it is not even created yet, Google is already creating widgets and add-ons that would only help and be useful to waves that exist inside itself. Assuming that the Google Wave would only be use full is a lot of your friends have it, I cannot imagine this being useful if you don't know anyone else who uses Wave. Whether or not it will replace Gmail or SMS's, nobody knows as of yet. Otherwise, it is a great combination and has potential to be a great communication device. Only time will tell.