Crest of the Wave

I just received an invitation to join Google's latest experiment in communication, Wave. I haven't used it for very long, but I'd just like to outline a few thoughts about it.

1. Wave has a lot of potential, but it will be better when there are more people using it. I only have three contacts who have gotten access to Wave, and I don't know any of them all that well. For now, I'm limited to participating in public Waves.
2. Typing is like plowing through a field of frozen molasses. This is probably because it has this "real-time typing" feature, which means that everyone on the wave can see what you're typing as you're typing it. I'd bet that is a bandwidth hog, and frankly, I'm not sure I see the point in the feature.
3. I like the fact that the dev team apparently consists of 100% Firefly junkies. The term "Wave" actually comes from the series, where interplanetary communication involves sending people a "wave". Also, a couple of error messages apparently use quotes from Firefly.

Overall, I'm interested, but not really blown away. I could see using Google Wave, but only once there are more people available to "wave". To paraphrase Robert Jordan, WAFO (wait and find out).

Lastly, for anyone who has Wave but doesn't really know how to use it, I recommend The Complete Guide to Google Wave. You can read it online for free, and I understand that the authors have plans for publication.