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If you’ve been out of the loop lately, then you may have missed Google’s big announcement about their newest communication platform called Google Wave. Google Wave allows users to communicate and collaborate in real time by combining email, instant messaging, social networking, wikis, project management and web chat all in one place. Created by a team out of Sydney, Australia, the main concept of Google Wave is to unify communication on the web. And although it’s invite-only right now (there’s still some beta testing going on), it should get easier in the coming weeks to snag an invite. Some of the features are:

-Record and replay live conversations. Google Wave records your entire sequence of communication, character by character. This also means your friends or co-workers will be able to see every character you type, as you type it.

-Embed it anywhere. Google Wave can be embedded in any blog or website.

-Share files. Just drag your file and drop it in Google Wave for everyone to have access.

-Spellchecker. Google Wave can autocorrect your spelling as you type. It even knows the difference between “there,” “their” and “they’re,” and “been” and “bean.” It can also auto-translate your text.

-Build Applications. Just like an iPhone or social media app, developers can build their own apps in Google Wave.

-Open Source. Google Wave code will be open source for developers to encourage innovation.

-Wiki functionality. Anything written in Google Wave can be edited by anyone because all conversations within the platform are shared. Users can correct information and comment on any developing conversation.

All in all, Google Wave has the potential to change the way we all communicate with each other indefinitely. We’ll be watching as more features develop and updates occur. In the meantime, check out the video we included below for more information on Google Wave.