In what seems like a well timed publicity move, Google let the public have their first sneak peak at Google Wave. The timing perfectly syncs with Microsofts launch of bing " Its new decision engine.

So what is Google Wave. According to the About section of the Google Wave site:

A wave is equal parts conversation and document. People can communicate and work together with richly formatted text, photos, videos, maps, and more.

A wave is shared. Any participant can reply anywhere in the message, edit the content and add participants at any point in the process. Then playback lets anyone rewind the wave to see who said what and when.

A wave is live. With live transmission as you type, participants on a wave can have faster conversations, see edits and interact with extensions in real-time.

So Google Wave promises to revolutionize more than just our internet surfing, but rather our communication and collaboration on the web.

Google Wave represents a lot more than some new fangled online collaboration tools. Google is championing a new wave driven protocol which is using Google Wave as merely a sample of its potential.

Google Wave introduces a new platform built around hosted conversations called waves"this model enables people to communicate and work together in new and more effective ways. On top of that, with the Google Wave APIs, developers can take advantage of this collaborative system by building on the Google Wave platform. We want to expand upon that platform, which is why weve put together the initial draft of the Google Wave Federation Protocol, the underlying network protocol for sharing waves between wave providers.

Weve seen historically that open platforms breed rapid growth and serious innovation. Just think of the multitude of applications being developed for mobile phones across the various platforms.

So whilst were still probably a good few months away from getting a beta sneak peak of the new Google Wave productthe initial hype has definitely captured my attention.

Its also interesting to note that Googles counter-publicity to the Microsoft bing launch had little to do with search.

The direction of Google Wave suggests that Google, while comfortable with their ascendency in Search, and definitely not falling into the trap of becoming complacent " and applications is where they see the next phase of their success.

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