Google’s looking for nothing but challenge the email as we know it for years. A pretty lofty ambitious goals for their newer product.
Why you should care about Google Wave?
Google has a good track record at successful products launched in established markets. Look at Gmail launched against Microsoft Hotmail and Yahoo Mail with now more that 150 million users. It’s Open Source; the code is open for improvements and such as you can create your own Wave server. Take a look at the Wave Developer blog with an interesting Wave API preview.