Finally got my Wave invite and I have a first impression.

Google has made the case that Wave is what email would have been been had it been built with today’s technology. But Google Wave strikes me more as a collaboration tool rather than a replacement for email. Frankly, I know a lot of people who would be pretty freaked out with other people editing their typing while they’re trying to send a message.

Why do we need to replace email anyway? I love email. Not Outlook or the the spam that comes with email. But I do love the call and response messaging that email provides. And I really love how Gmail provides conversation nesting for easier tracking of the back and forth. I find email very freaking useful. In fact, just a moment ago it got a friend of mine a job interview. Can’t do that with Wave. And did I mention my mother can use it?

But I am excited about where Wave is going. For geeks working with other tech savvy people, there’s a lot that can be accomplished with this tool. But for Wave to be more useful than email, we’ll have to wait for widespread adoption and be lucky enough to work with people who are pretty technologically inclined.