Over the past several years, Internet users have become accustomed to Web 2.0 and cloud computing-style applications. It's commonplace and even intuitive to drag and drop gadgets on personalized start pages, to comment on a Facebook post without reloading the page, and to compose and save documents through a web browser. The web paradigm has completely shifted over the past 15 years; it's evolved into a multiauthored, participatory communication space. Apart from some interface improvements (think Gmail), these tools have remained fundamentally the same over the same period of time. Now, thanks to developers at Google, email and IM may be in for some competition. This article features Google Wave. First unveiled in May 2009 and released to its first 100,000 invitees in September, Google Wave is a new communication protocol, platform, and client designed to replace or supplement email, IM, and online collaboration tools like wikis. Google Wave's main "wow" feature is real-time collaborative editing. As Google Wave begins to gain more users and more features, libraries will undoubtedly begin experimenting with creative and innovative options. Google Wave's platform, though currently lacking in user-friendliness, is powerful enough to change completely how users communicate with one another.