Feature-by-Feature Comparison Wave is more like a real-time, workgroup Wikipedia than Google Docs, email, or instant messenger. The following table compares common collaboration tools to Wave, feature by feature. Feature Email Instant Messenger Google Docs Wikis Forums Wave A single, hosted copy of a conversation or document No Not usually Yes Yes Yes Yes The ability to see when contacts are online No Yes Yes No No Yes Instant messaging or chat, with no-refresh updates No Yes Yes No No Yes Keystroke-by-keystroke live updates with multiple visible cursors No Some services No No No Yes Simultaneous editing of one document by multiple collaborators No No Yes Yes No Yes Edit rights to other participants' contributions No No Yes Yes No Yes The ability to compare revisions No No No Yes No Yes Interactive maps, videos, polls and other widgets Not really No Some Some No Yes Inline replies and threaded conversations Manually No No No Some Yes Ability to easily publish the conversation or document No No Yes Yes No Yes(to other Wave users) User access permissions (read-only or edit) N/A N/A Yes Some N/A Not currently Ability to easily link documents to each other No No No Yes No Yes Ability to export the finished document to a file No No Yes Manually No No As you can see, Wave offers a whole lot of features in one place. But how do you put Wave to good use in your workday?