Why is Google Wave such a buzz? I think it is the message is so forceful because they promise to get rid of daily frustrations we have with dealing with communication technology. The current state of communication technology reflects how we see our physical communication. We regard communication as something discrete (a message is a package with a distinguishable beginning and end.) We also experience communication as something that has an exclusive form, we either talk or write a mail.

But communication is not so simple. Communication is fluid and omnipresent. If we mail we also refer to discussions we had offline, as we now call it. While writing a mail you get twittered, called or smsed. All have an impact and are part of this flow of information. There is no such thing as the beginning of a package of information. And it certainly never ends.

Yet we are forced to see it like this. Except with Google Wave. They have a demo of a product that addresses this problem. Not by doing something new, but by doing everything better. Google Wave promises you can chat and walk away to continue by mail on your Android (something already possible.) It shows how easy it is to invite others and have them be part.

Will it be the Google Maps of email? I don’t think so. In this case they will show everyone what is possible with technology (HTML 5, fast processors, etc.) And the corporate world (mainly Microsoft) will first copy features. Then it will try promise to implement the protocol while actually trying to hug it death. The end result is that we will have several interoperating products, more or less complying with the standards.

Google Wave will not have made us communicate more or less, they will show the world how we can communicate. Is it going to be big? Certainly! Are we going to recognize it as Google in 5 years? I doubt it sincerely! Is that a problem to Google? They don’t really care! The most important to them is that more and more people have real access to the web. They will be exposed to their products, but more importantly they will be exposed to Google served advertisement.