Google says “email was invented 40 years ago and Wave is what email would be if it were invented today”. That alone does not mean “Wave is better than email”. Email works because it works … for everyone.

I’m on Gmail and use Thunderbird. At work I’m on Lotus Notes. I use an iPhone *and* a Blackberry. My brother is on Microsoft Exchange at work and Yahoo mail at home. I can email my mother’s telephone. My niece can text message my email address. IT JUST WORKS – with everyone, everywhere.

Enter Google Wave. Cool stuff ! I’d love to give it a try. I bet its will be a blast within a team. But hardly anyone has it and it won’t be everywhere anytime soon … well, maybe if Google is lucky it will be ubiquitous in 40 years by which time there will be Google Omni (I’m claiming that name here and now) or something.

The problem with a new “all-in-one” solution is that it only works when everyone involved has the same all-in-one solution. It also assumes everyone wants the same all-in-one solution. Like I said, I have gmail but I hardly ever want to use the gmail native web interface. I really like the iPhone experience and for my desktop, Thunderbird is my compromise choice. A web experience is way down on my list of choices. Perhaps Wave will be different. Perhaps Wave will be better than email … some day.

So don’t “wave off email” just yet