So I woke up early this morning, first thing I did, turned on my mobile, checked my inbox and there it was! The long awaited Google Wave INVITE!!!

So after going on Twitter and with the help of a couple of friends (thank you – Adrian) who already have Wave invites, I managed to speed through the introduction course and checked out a number of features…

First impression
When the super massive intelligent beings at Google first set-out to develop something revolutionary, they described it as E-mail – invented today – and so, the interface does look very e-mail like.

3 columns, 1st column – List of contacts on the side, there are folders for archiving and organizing purposes, there’s an inbox, a spam section… Right in the center pane you’ve got the list of ‘mails’ – known as a ‘wave’. Then there’s the content of the active wave on the far right pane.

It’s almost like a LIVE e-mail conversation
You start a Wave (e-mail conversation) using the “new wave” button, then you select your recipients by dragging them from your contacts list and begin typing! That’s it!

As you type, all your recipients who are on Google Wave will see you type LIVE… and while you are typing they can type too! Essentially, this is a LIVE conversation – where you will see EVERY TYPO error, every spelling mistake, whether or not something was copied and pasted… it’s amazing. Sometimes, before I was able to finish my sentence / question, the other party had already answered…

Want to add pictures / files to the Wave and share it with your friends in real-time? Just drag and drop!

How about previewing pictures? Instead of downloading, just double click and it’ll show in full-screen!

It’s also got Gadgets and Gizmo’s you can add to each Wave…

Wanna point someone to your current location? Give someone directions? Use the map gadget!

Lunching at this restaurant but wondering if friends would like to join you? Add the Yes / No / Maybe Gadget!

Robots are your friends… LITERALLY!
For me, Google Wave is way more than LIVE e-mails or MSN Messenger with LIVE typing… it’s more like a collaboration tool. Remember contacts? Well, guess what? You can add friends / contacts that are robots.

Turn your Google Wave – ‘WAVE’ into a Twitter client!
Just add Tweety the Tweet Bot – tweety-wave@appspot.com to your contacts, drag the bot into a new wave and voila!

Monitoring something on Twitter? Create another wave, add Tweety and get it to monitor certain keywords and alert you when it sees any!

Wikipedia BOT is a SLAVE to you… MUAHAHAHA…
wikifier@appspot.com

Just imagine you’re WAVE-ing with a friend on Google Wave and all of a sudden you need information a link from Wikipedia on Mariah Carey, NO SCAT, just drag the Wikipedia Bot from your contacts list into the Wave and do this…

Once you’re done, the Wikipedia Bot recognizes the command and does this!

So you’ve got Mariah Carey URL, what if you need summarized information on big mama MC… just key in the other command…

and voila!…

AMAZING!

Bit.Ly – URL Shortener Bot
bitly-bot@appspot.com

So you’ve got the Mariah Carey link the Wikipedia BOT gave you – but typing it / writing it down is just too long! Not to worry, just drag in your Bit.Ly Bot into the conversation, key in the long URL…

And POOF! it turns to this!

Absolutely brilliant…

More on bots here, Ultimate List of Google Wave Gadgets & Tools…

Summary
As you can see, Google Wave is not just a ‘new generation e-mail’, it’s not just a collaboration tool, it’s not just a Twitter client when needed to be… there’s just so much more to talk about, to explore – all that was I managed to grasp in 2 hours – it’s a one of a kind, communication tool that knows no boundaries – possibilities are literally endless.

Have you got you Google Wave invite yet? Oh yes, before you start asking, I don’t have any – Google was REALLY KIAMSIAP a.k.a stingy when they got me the account – I can’t give out invites… YET. You’ll know when I’ve got some… don’t worry, I’ll spread the love

Want to see it in action?… from the Creators of Google Wave themselves…

and ONE LAST THING… this blog talks about the 7 ways of getting a Google Wave invite. Check it out and all the best!

This post is also featured on my Fly FM Blog