The service, called Wave, will erode the distinction between the various ways people keep in touch on the Web and eliminate the need to use multiple tools to do so, the company said.
Google previewed Wave at its annual developers conference in San Francisco. The free service won't be available to the public until sometime later this year. Additionally, Google intends to incorporate some of Wave's features into its other services like e-mail and documents.
Wave's users invite others to join their "wave" about a particular topic so they can follow the thread of messages, much like a bulletin board. Everyone on the list can see individual messages as they're being typed, letter by letter, like instant messaging taken to the extreme, to speed up the conversation.
There's an option to turn off the real-time feature, which will no doubt be handy for people who often revise what they write before hitting send.
Users can drag and drop photos and maps onto the waves to make them immediately visible to others. They can also edit documents together, potentially appealing to workers who are collaborating on a project and who would otherwise use wikis.
Wave is designed for use by both consumers, for communicating with family and friends, and businesses.
Software developers are being encouraged to create features that are compatible with Wave. Web site owners or bloggers will be able to incorporate Wave's messaging features as a bulletin board, for instance.
Google will need to persuade people to drop their instant messaging, e-mail and other online services, or at least use them differently from a central hub. The company also runs the risk of taking away users from some of its services like Gmail.
(05-28) 19:52 PDT -- Google is uniting instant messaging, e-mail and document collaboration into a new service with the audacious goal of changing how people communicate online.
If Wave achieves only modest success, it may simply create yet another place where people have to check messages rather than eliminating the need to go to different places. Although Wave received widespread applause from software developers at its preview Thursday, its complexity and breadth may be too daunting for more casual Internet users.
Wave was developed in Google's Sydney office by a team led by Lars and Jens Rasmussen, brothers whose company, Where 2 Tech, was acquired by Google in 2004. They previously built Google Maps, a hit that gave them credibility with Google's management when they asked two years ago for resources to reinvent communication - never mind their vague plans.
"It did sound kind of crazy," said Sergey Brin, Google's co-founder, at a news conference. "The team decided to give them the benefit of the doubt."
E-mail Verne Kopytoff at vkopytoff@sfchronicle.com.
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