I am on a roll with Google-themed posts, buoyed up by an atypical flurry of responses (thanks guys!). I might as well go for the hatrick and muse about Google Wave.
I think this is an excellent innovation, bringing together several strands of electronic communications — email, chat, forums — but allowing a new range of interactions. What it lacks is people using it and, without enough critical mass, it looks like it is dying on the vine.
Perhaps Google could offer a way to roll that into it's other products? I don't care for the real-time element — tricks like being able to edit what someone else is typing before they have finished seem confusing rather than valuable. However, it might enrich email discussions with other Googlemail users if I had the option to respond directly to points within their email (turning it into a Wave) rather than making a more traditional reply.
Meanwhile, if you want to try Wave and haven’t had the chance, let me know as I still have plenty of invites available.