In case you had been reading about Bing, well, time to shift focus. Google Wave just (steam)rolled ashore. Google Wave isn't a site; it's an engine. It isn't simply a service; it's also a series of protocols and development tools. It's exciting, and... 

Google Wave is, well, simultaneously tough to wrap around, and incredibly tantalizing. From their site: 

Google Wave is a product that helps users communicate and collaborate on the web. A "wave" is equal parts conversation and document, where users can almost instantly communicate and work together with richly formatted text, photos, videos, maps, and more. Google Wave is also a platform with a rich set of open APIs that allow developers to embed waves in other web services and to build extensions that work inside waves.

The technical specifications shed more light on its true capability. Essentially, Google envisions an entire web secured by personal connections, with information co-authored across distance and time, and recorded historically for reference purposes.

This is in direct contrast to the secular, provincial model of web access, whereby users access unique, data-separated sites with differing levels of security. 

Given that it seems Wave is highly extensible, open source and relatively simple to develop on, hey there, this deserves attention not only for its development possibilities, but for its potential to host multiple, integrated educational spaces. I am, obviously, very curious - and have signed up for early developer access. Fingers crossed, and more to come!

Cheers, 
--Dave