Google will open the first 100,000 invites for Google Wave at 4pm today. If you’ve signed up before and are lucky enough to get an invite, you’ll be able to invite five friends to join you.
Google Wave is touted by the search giant as “how email would look if it were invented today” and is open source to allow developers to add their own apps to it.
The service features real-time typing so users can see comments being written character by character. Unlike IM, Google Wave conversations will remain even when users in the wave have logged out.
All messages in a Google Wave can be edited by members of the wave and there’s a playback facility to show you who wrote what and when.
Google Wave also lets you grab photos from your desktop and sling them straight into a wave.
If you’re a Safari or Firefox fan, Google Wave will work straight away. But if you’re rocking Internet Explorer, you’ll need Google’s Chrome Frame plug-in.
With just 100,000 invites on offer today, the majority of the 1m people who’ve signed up to Google Wave are bound to be disappointed. If you end up locked out don’t worry, Google Wave will open to everyone in early 2010.
Out now | £free | Google
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