Live chats with more than one user can get quite complicated under regular circumstances; and Wave’s aim of trying to find a solution to this by providing a streamlined interface that brings e-mail, IM, encyclopedias, and other things all in one window,is a pretty useful one. But Wave tries to improve online communication to solve these problems in the way Vista tried to improve XP – by changing everything about the familiar interface everyone was used to. To begin with, everything on Wave has an unfamiliar name: conversations are called Waves, the messages contained therein are called Blips, and messages that are like mobile text messages, are called Pings. Everything about Wave, needs thumbing through the help manual or a video – even simple stuff like sending a message to someone.

You would think they would try to make things a little easier by at least cutting down on the frills; no such luck here. Google Wave is packed with widgets for games, maps and things that you would be hard-pressed to understand what to do with. And that is just the point. Why would you want to learn to do all this, when Google Wave doesn’t seem to really aim itself at a well-defined problem? What does Google Wave do better than Google Docs for example? Certainly, Wave is quick to respond to every command, and seems very well put together; now if only understand what it is put together to be.

Although online chatting is a means of socializing and getting to know people all over the world, there are security issues related to it. Certain basic safety precautions need to be followed to make sure that chatting is a pleasant experience.

Safety precautions include:

• Make sure your screen name never includes your genuine name.
• Don’t share your videos and photos with unknown people.
• Don’t reveal personal information to people you don’t know and protect your personal identity.
• If you receive messages that make you feel uncomfortable, don’t respond to them and try to avoid chatting with that specific person; blocking the user is a good option.
• Don’t organize to meet up with your new chat friends. If necessary, meet up in busy place and make sure you’ve informed friends or family about where you’re going.
• If you receive any unexpected files from people you don’t know, don’t accept or download the files as they could carry viruses and completely ruin your system.
• Saving copies of your chat conversations is a good idea, in case you need to use them in future.
• You must know how to report the problems to the chat room moderator.

Follow these simple precautions and make sure that chatting online is an enjoyable experience for you, and not something that could get you into any kind of trouble.