Get Ready to Ride the Google Wave!

Late last week Google unveiled what they consider the future of online communication - "Google Wave". The service seems to combine Gmail and Google Docs into an interesting free form workspace. Within this environment, people are able to write documents collaboratively, plan events, play games or discuss recent news.

With Google Wave you can create a wave and add people to it. Everyone in your wave can use richly formatted text, photos, gadgets, and event feeds from other sources on the web. They can insert a reply or edit the wave directly.

The service incorporates real time updates, so you can instantly see what your fellow collaborators are working on. You can also use the "Playback" option to see how the wave has evolved.

Google Wave is a platform with a rich set of Application Programming Interfaces (API’s) that allow developers to embed waves into other web services and to build extensions that work inside of waves. The service is currently available in a developer preview as the API’s and product continue to evolve.

By targeting the developer community, before the official launch later this year, Google is hoping to have a dynamic new platform that will be embraced quickly.

Please visit the Google Blog for more information on Google Wave or consult the Wave Developer Guide to learn more about the capabilities of the API’s.

This new service might set the benchmark for online collaboration and I think it will definitely gain a large audience quickly. Keep your eyes open for the launch later this year!