Ride the wave

While the anticipated communications service isn't yet ready for a public launch, Google has announced plans to launch a limited preview of Wave, which is already in testing among select developers.

Wave was developed by an Australian team led by brothers Jens and Lars Rasmussen. It aspires to wed instant messaging capabilities, document handling and sharing, email and social networking features in one package. Google apparently also plans to launch a "monetizable wave extension store" that enables developers to sell software that enhances its capabilities.

News of an app-style Wave store arrives a day before Google was scheduled to send Wave invites to over 100,000 developers, individual testers and corporate Google Apps users, according to the Globe and Mail. Many of the coveted invitations have made their way onto eBay since their release yesterday, where some are already marked up to $150.

Preview users will be able to select friends, family and colleagues to try the service over time, much the way Gmail first rolled out to the public.

Companies working on software capability extensions of Wave include SAP, Salesforce.com and a handful of gaming and video conferencing providers.

A public timeline hasn't been provided for Wave's availability, but the Wave homepage promises a launch "coming later this year."