The web world has always been quick to call something a “game changer” or a “killer app” at a moment’s notice.  These sorts of declarations come largely from the early adopter crowd; a group of individuals who play a critical role in the advancement of technology.  Often times, making these sorts of statements are either: 1) unwarranted, 2) unjustified, or simply 3) premature.

But yesterday, when Google demoed their Wave product at the IO conference in San Francisco [video below], everybody watching knew that today was not like any other day.  It was very clear that the game had just changed, and drastically at that.  Google’s Wave was a project started over two years ago attempting to “re-invent” e-mail as we knew it.  In doing so, the Australian-based team at Google uncovered an amazing communication and collaboration platform.

[too long? ... read this great Google Wave breakdown courtesy of Mashable]

The service boasts the most interactive and real-time communication experience we have ever seen.  Remember thinking that it couldn’t get any more real-time than Twitter?  Or maybe even FriendFeed?  Wave literally blows these communication outlets out of the water (no pun intended) in terms of its connectivity and real-timeyness with it’s character-by-character chat-style communication flow.  No longer do you have to wait for an individual to post the reply, comment, or update; because if you are both on the “wave” at the same time, you are watching each other type, character by character, virtually lag-free!  Overload?  Maybe.  Game-changing?  Absolutely.

In addition to Wave’s powerful social implications lies Wave’s incredible enterprise capabilities.  Wave revamps online collaboration, now making wikis feel archaeic in nature.  The business implications on such a platform are immediately apparent.

How did Google do it?

• First, the team looked at the most dominant form of communication on the internet today: e-mail.
• Then the team asked, “What if email were invented today instead of 40 years ago?”
• Then they set out to essentially “re-invent” email using all of today’s communication tools the web has to offer
• As a result, the team created the most complete communication platform in history.

Just how pervasive will Google Wave become?

Is there a chance Google Wave won’t take off?  Yeah, I guess there’s a chance…but a very slight one.  Google’s focus on open source architecture and developer interaction leads me to believe that we are in for one long ride, on one very big wave.

Facebook has recently rolled out an update to its popular IM system, FbChat.  It allows users to incorporate their customized “Friend Lists” on the chatting platform.  With this update, Facebook now allows users the ability to appear either online or offline to a select group of their friends.  A small, but useful update for those who love to chat while appearing invisible to those random “friends” who you just don’t want to be bothered with.  In fact, a handy tool for any “Facebook stalker.”

Joking aside, the more interesting question raised is: “What is the future of our web interactions?”

With so many modes of communication on the net today, I sometimes wonder what the future has in store.  FbChat is extremely useful to Facebook’s platform as a whole.  I know for me, Instant Messenger (AIM) has been completely replaced through the use of both the GChat (Google) and FbChat services.  And still, despite the luxury of instant messaging, email remains my preferred method of communication…at least for the majority of my online interactions.

So what’s the future of web interaction?  With the push for a more real-time web, many tend to side with instant messaging (can’t get more real-time than that, right?).  What about Twitter’s huge impact on the social web?  Are tweets, microposts, and status updates the new way to share our thoughts and feelings?  Have we completely escaped from the conventional vocal conversation?

What do you think?