Waving

Okay, I've had some time to play with Wave.

I think the Industry Buzzwords are confusing what the actual product does; add to that the lingo that Google has labeled the parts of Wave with and it's no wonder that I had no idea what it was. I don't think it's very intuitive as a result.

That is, until you start a Wave with someone else. Then it all starts to make sense.

What it boils down to is a really advanced chat room.

It feels very old school because you see everyone involved typing in real time (soon to be a feature that can be turned off—so you can finish a thought and then have it available). But then you realize that each of those little chat boxes can be edited by anyone invited, that the text has rudimentary formatting, that you can link sub comments, and that members of the Wave can have a private side chat—and it doesn't seem very old school anymore.

On top of all that there, are all kinds of Gadgets that you can use, and people are writing new gadgets all the time. You can bring in a Google map and mark off areas and label points of interest. You can add a gadget that allows you to scribble a la MS paint. You can add one of many gaming dice gadgets and generate random numbers. You can add a deck of cards that can be manipulated much like a real deck or two or three...You can upload files that everyone can access. You can Create a Poll. You can integrate your social networking of choice (Facebook, Twitter, Blogging, etc.)

It essentially takes the rudimentary and simple concept of a chat, and elevates it to a collaboration tool. I can see it as a very useful and fun tool with which to work.