Today is the day 100,000 lucky individuals get to try out the developer version of Google Wave. And as if they aren’t lucky enough, they will each get 5 invites.

So what is Google wave?

Google's definition: "a personal communication and collaboration tool".

My definition: "a very interesting bit of kit".

Real time and Real Smart Tools

Aside from this tool being incredibly real-time in terms of IM, email and document editing it also has the most comprehensive set of abilities with relation to blogging, publishing and developing social engagement.

Imagine a digital team working on a presentation or document together in real time: editing content, fonts, styles, layout etc... And when I say real time, I mean real time, I’ve watched 5 people create documents in Google Wave at the same time. Edited changes will appear on a separate screen (as well as the editors) instantly. Coloured tabs representing an individual user (Google colours of course).

One tool still under development but planned for release when Wave goes live is the ability to select what contributions to a document you want to see and also compare the contributions made to a document.

Incorporates all Social Platforms

As well as collaborative document editing, blogging and social media activities are high on Google’s priorities and these features have been implemented into their development of Wave. Twitter, personal blogs and Facebook all have a place on Wave. Whole conversations can be instantly published to a blog, conversations and threads on topics of interest can be broadcast for all too see.

One quote I’ve seen elsewhere is that the Waves (basically equivalent to a post, tweet or message) contained within Google Wave are like “emails on steroids”, the Waves themselves can go on indefinitely without the contribution of its creator – but the creator can come back to it and still see everything that has occurred since his/her last visit.

Develops what has already revolutionised.

The way in which Gmail organises conversations has not been forgotten - if anything it has been advanced! Wave will allow the conversation to be paused or reversed to see who entered, when they entered and what they contributed when they entered. So this is similar to the conversation thread prominent within Gmail but with the added bonus of dictating where you’d like the conversation to start from.

As with any new tool games are part and parcel and they look to be just as addictive as usual.

Conclusion

I have really only scratched the surface of what Wave can do, but hopefully this post has helped you catch a glimpse of how Google Wave might shake up how we use the internet to communicate.

Where can I see Wave in action?

I've just watched the first 40 minutes of the Google Wave Developer Preview at the Google I/O and would definitely recommend it to everyone.

Of course one question you might be asking is "what's going to happen to MSN Messenger?"for that I’m sure only the users of Google Wave and Messenger can decide!