Google Apps Users to Get an Early Pass for Wave

Google Wave was only announced three months ago, but the wait has seemed a lot longer for many. Still, it won't be long now that Google will open up its email-IM-wiki combo to a lot more users. But, if you work for a company or go to a school that uses Google Apps, the wait may be even shorter, as Google has announced it will introduce the new product to a number of organizations using the enterprise offering over the course of this fall and will actually make it available for all Apps users next year.

“Over the last couple of months, we've been very busy developing the product, opening the protocol and learning from the thousands of developers who are using and contributing to Google Wave. While the product, platform and protocols are still being developed, we're extending access to some of the highly collaborative people and communities we hope to benefit in the future – businesses and schools,” Matthew Glotzbach and Stephanie Hannon from the Google Enterprise and Wave teams wrote.

Announced in May at the Google I/O conference, Google Wave plans to revolutionize the way we communicate, collaborate and share online. Part email, part instant messenger, part wiki and part photo and file-sharing service, it really is everything to anyone and the applications for it will be as diverse as the people using it.

Since it has been announced, Google has let a small number of developers in to test the product and the number has been increasing over the summer. But it's about to get a much bigger bump, as Google has announced it will open up Wave to 100,000 developers and curious users come September 30. And now the company is also adding Apps users to the mix, though it's not clear if they will be part of the 100,000 or will be counted separately. Choosing Apps users as early adopters slash guinea pigs makes perfect sense, as Wave is a perfect fit for the organizations employing the set of tools at the moment and could be put to great use in a business or school environment.