Google Wave not fully available until late 2010
Google Wave, a new communication tool that aims to blend email, instant messaging and social networking into a single online communication and collaboration tool, won't be fully available until next year, the company has told Web User.
Co-founder Lars Rasmussen and lead product manager Stephanie Hannon told Web User that they were expecting it to become available to the general public late next year.
"As long as we can manage people's expectations, I don't think we should be the ones artificially denying people access if they want it. But the reason we're not letting more people in is almost exclusively because the software can't handle it," said Rasmussen.
Google Wave is currently being tested by hundreds of thousands of invited users. More than two million people are on the waiting list.
"It's nice to have more requests than we can handle but we really would like to give it to anyone who wants it. We'll stay in the hundreds of thousands this year, get to the millions early next year, then if things go really well maybe we'll be able to just open it up completely late next year," said Rasmussen.
To use Wave you need to be invited by an existing user, although these invites are strictly limited and are mainly kept by individuals interested in using the software to develop plug-ins and extensions before it's launched publicly.
Last week security experts warned surfers to be on their guard against emails claiming to offer programs that automatically generate Google Wave invites.
Responding to the email gives the scammers access to your Inbox.
If you haven't already seen it in action, watch the Google Wave video.
