Google Wave is a new model for communication and collaboration on the web, coming later this year. Here’s a preview of just some of the aspects of this new tool. A wave is equal parts conversation and document.People can communicate and work together with richly formatted text, photos, videos, maps, and more.

The service seems to combine Gmail and Google Docs into an interesting free-form workspace that could be used to write documents collaboratively, plan events, play games or discuss a recent news.

A wave is shared. Any participant can reply anywhere in the message, edit the content and add participants at any point in the process. Then playback lets anyone rewind the wave to see who said what and when. A wave is live. With live transmission as you type, participants on a wave can have faster conversations, see edits and interact with extensions in real-time.

Some key technologies in Google Wave:

Real-time collaboration Natural language tools Extending Google Wave Concurrency control technology lets all people on a wave edit rich media at the same time. Server-based models provide contextual suggestions and spelling correction. Embed waves in other sites or add live social gadgets, thanks to Google Wave APIs. More info on google official blog.