So the two big news items this Friday are Google Wave and Microsoft Bing. Here’s the low down.

Google Wave
Looks very cool. An über-communication and collaboration platform, integrating a bunch of functionality to create a rich mosaic of threads and conversations, or a 'wave'.

The screenshots look like Gmail on steroids but it’s not email, it’s not chat. It’s something totally new. The key takeout is that it’s collaborative, live and concurrent, more like a real conversation. The underlying principle behind the new service is something called 'operational transformation', which you can find out more about in this video (Warning! Very techy content):



Here’s the full Google Wave developer preview video which tells you everything you need to know and more (it's quite long):



Overall, I'd say Google Wave looks really innovative, and definitely 'new'. Especially because a wave is a stream of content about a subject or topic, and the content contributed to a wave is recorded over time; so it’s as much about the evolution or creation of the wave as it is about the ultimate result of that wave.

This also has implications for search because this will allow for the search of a wave, or stream, of content, rather than the search of a static result. So it’s like searching for a story about something rather than a static page of information.

So Google are again putting the focus on individuals and personal communication and experience. Giving the users the tools to make their own stuff.

If it works and isn’t as confusing as it sounds (the timeline stuff sounds like it could be 'Back to the Future' complex), then it will be awesome.

Microsoft Bing
So the other big news this Friday is MS’s new search engine called 'Bing', which is replacing Live Search (which no one uses). They’re pitching it as a ‘decision engine’ and have integrated categories of search, like shopping and travel. Not sure what else to say here except that it sounds interesting but we’ll wait and see how good it really is, the proof is in the pudding.

I’m a little skeptical though, simply because it sounds like they’ve gone down the portal model, which doesn’t really sound like a new concept, in fact portals are something which represents the legacy Web, and I can’t think of a good example of a portal that survives today which is very successful.

Maybe MS have developed a super smart Bing 'brain' which will know more than people know themselves about what they're searching for...but I'm finding it hard to see the innovation in this new search engine.

Whilst competition is a good thing, we're not sure how this changes the game nor really delivers on the promise of a 'decision engine'.

Google killer? Doubtful.

Here’s the promotional video:



Carl Panczak, General Manager Sydney

Labels: Search Engine Marketing, Social media, Technology, Web Culture and Trends