Well, since Google Wave is still new, here is a brief glossary of terms, at least as I understand them. Feel free to let me know in the comments if you have any suggestions.

• Google Wave – Probably the hardest term in this list to explain, even if it is the whole reason why this blog is here. According to Google:
  

  Google Wave is an online tool for real-time communication and collaboration

• Wave – A wave can be thought of as a conversation,  it is a place where people can collaborate on a document, and also have forum-like conversations within it. Every participant in a wave has full authority in that wave at the moment.
• Blip - A Blip is a single entry within a wave, a block of text (possibly including widgets, and images), edited by one or more people. Most people at thi stage follow a one person per blip rule, although it is not enforced by the wave setup in any way.
  • Empty Blip - A blip with no text or any other content in it, they are often made by accident as people get used to the current wave interface.
  • Inline Blip - A blip within another blip, often used for replies, or to comment on something within a longer wave


A typical Wave

• Wavelet – A blip within a wave that contains responses and discussions, a subwave of sorts, it seems to be one of those terms that does not really have a firm definition, although sometimes used to simply mean a Blip
• Extension- Similar to the use of widgets in websites, an Extension is a single visual component that can be included in a Blip to provide various functionalities. Sometimes, they are referred to as Gadgets
• Bot – A program in Google Wave, that can be added as a participant to a wave, and there it preforms various functions. Examples include: Displaying graphical smiley, cleaning up empty blips, preforming maths functions, and many others. New bots are being developed constantly.
• Public – A Wave can be made Public, which means that anybody, even if they are not added as a participant to the wave, can view and edit the wave. You will get added as a participant to eh wave if you do any of those things. If you want to find public waves, use with:public in your search.
• Mute – A wave can be muted, which means that you will not be able to see the wave in your inbox even when it is updated, the only time that it will show up is within its folder, or within a search.
• Archive – An Archived wave disappears form the inbox, but it will reappear if any changes happen to it.
• Trash – A wave in trash should not be visible anywhere to you. Other participants in the wave can still access it though.
• Google Wave API – A set of functions and processes offered by Google for third party developers to write their own Gadgets, bots and clients
• Inbox – Acts similar to a normal email inbox, in that it displays any waves that you participate in, and that have changed since the last time you have read them.
• Tag - A tag is a word or a phrase used to describe a wave. It is used to more easily find related waves, and to get a better idea what a wave is about. At this time, only whole waves can be tagged. Tags are viewable by any participant of the wave.
• Folder - A Folder acts like a folder in a mail program, allowing you to sort out the waves you are involved with. the folders are not visible to anyone else, unlike tags. A wave can only be in one folder at a time, although folders can be nested within each other
• Participant - Either a Person or a bot that posts and is able to view a wave.
• Playback - A way to view how a wave has changed and developed over time.
• Inbox – A pre-created search that will display all waves that you are a participant in that have changed since you last viewed them

Related posts:

1. Google Wave Searches
2. Getting Started with Google Wave
3. Follow/Unfollow Buttons
4. GTD and Google Wave
5. Wave Etiquette