So what exactly is Google Wave?

You could classify it as a real-time collaboration tool that enables communication between a group of people. The environment enables a multitude of media that can interact within a wave or be embedded, such as?? text, photos, videos, maps, gadgets, bots and more. It???s also?? a platform with a rich set of open APIs that allow developers to embed waves in other web services and to build extensions that work inside waves. Just as with Twitter, it???s the developer community that will make or break Google Wave. It???s very early in the game, but product innovation potential is there.

What a typical wave looks like:

A wave is?? conversation with multiple participants. You can add as many people as you like to the wave to participate and collaborate. Rich content can be added to the wave by anyone is who part of the wave. The content can consist of gadgets, games, maps, video, photos, files and more. Similar to a message board, participants in the wave can reply any time and anywhere within a wave to anyone. Replies are threaded and can be edited anytime. You can also keep replies private and?? select the participants that should see it. The real in real-time in here is watching the other participants in the wave type every key stroke,?? and of course every spelling error right in front of your eyes.?? Think before you say it applies here, because there is no comfort zone as there is with typing an email.?? In an odd way, watching the other person type in real time changes the experience too.?? To some extent this has existed already in some instant messaging platforms, but if I recall correctly,?? it would only say ??? the other user is typing???, and not broadcast the other users text in real time.

via Google Wave Is The Future of Real Time Collaboration | Social Media Marketing Strategies.