Bing Kumo Rides the Wave, Wave Soaks Bing Kumo
May 29, 2009
Think back a couple of weeks. Wolfram Alpha became available and Google rolled out announcements about enhancements to its system. Microsoft raised the curtain on its Bing search system, and the Google rolled a Wave across its developers. No accidents of timing. Google wants to be in charge of the digital information flows, and it is clear to me that Google treats capable mathematicians and $65 billion software giants exactly the same. In the war of visibility and media attention, Google neutralizes other firms’ efforts in all things digital.
The number of articles about Wave and Bing Kumo seemed high. I thought it would be interesting to try and quantify which product name received the most coverage. I took a count before I conked out after a long day in Washington, DC, and then again this morning. To my dismay, the miserable high speed Internet connection timed out in the middle of script I used for the count. I tried a couple of more times and concluded that in terms of Megite.com, Microsoft was the lead story. Google’s Wave was a sublisting under a Microsoft Bing story. Twitter wasn’t much use because I timed out and then got what looked like erroneous results. A quick check of Newsnow.co.uk revealed that Microsoft and Google were not the top stories when I checked at about 7 am Eastern.
I did some poking around and learned two things:
First, Bing is neither a winner nor a loser as a “decision engine”. It is another search engine aimed at consumers. The mash ups, the social functions, and the semantics are present, just not dominant. Product Review Net here described its position in this way:
Microsoft tells us that this new search engine will be far different than we were used to with Live Search, Google and Yahoo Search. Normally when you search for something you then get one answer, Bing is different, as it knows that one answer is not often enough.
The key point in the article was the statement,
Internet users have been asking the same question, “Why Bing” and the answer is simple. Decisionengine.com explains that although current search engines are amazing, but as more than four websites are created every second, this means that half the search results that come up are not the results that people had searched for. Bing is different as it has evolved in to something new and better, but we will only know if this is true once Bing is up and running.
Okay, multiple answers. You may find the Bing video here located by Product Reviews useful.
Second, Warwick Ashford made a good point in his write up “Google Unveils Next Wave of Online Communications” here. Mr. Ashford wrote:
Google has posted examples of how services like Twitter can be automatically included in waves. Rasmussen described it as “concurrent rich-text editing”, where users see nearly instantly what collaborators are typing in your wave as well as being able to use “playback” to rewind the wave to see how it evolved.
Google, if Mr. Ashford is correct has focused on communication in which search is one function.
My thoughts about the Wave and Bing Kumo roll outs are:
- Microsoft is trying hard to out do Google in a market sector that focuses on finding information in some consumer areas such as tickets. Although the service is interesting, it is, by definition, constrained and inherently narrow. The method of interaction is well know, focused on accessing previously indexed information, and delivering utility such as a discount in airfare and similar practical information outcomes.
- Google seems to be cobbling together mash ups of its various components and moving parts. Wave is new and open. The idea is to allow developers first and then users to create information channels and then have those flows available for communication purposes. Wave is not search.
The contrast strikes me as quite significant in the broader information market. I think these three reasons sum up my thoughts in the early days of both services:
First, both services seems to be works in progress. In short, we are watching pundits, mavens, and self appointed wizards exercise themselves with what are not much more than demos. Don’t get me wrong. There’s nothing wrong with demos. Most of my work is a demo. But demos are not products and it is not clear if either of these offerings will have much of an impact on users. In short, I am less than thrilled with both Wave and Bing.
Second, Microsoft seems intent on beating Google at the search game. Google on the other hand is trying hard to invent a new game in which it has not had much success; that is, real time information retrieval. What’s interesting to me is that both Google and Microsoft may be tilting at windmills. My hunch is that Google will plug along in search, and Microsoft will plug along in its desktop applications and server business. Both companies will be hard pressed to achieve much traction in the short term with their Thursday roll outs. Over time, both will be reasonable successful, but I don’t see a future Le Bron James in either demo.
Third, both companies underscore how monocultures react to the new information world. The similarity of each company’s approach to these roll outs makes me see two peas in a pod, not innovative, distinctive ways to address the changing needs of users.
Just my opinion. Honk.
Stephen Arnold, May 29, 2009
Comments
2 Responses to “Bing Kumo Rides the Wave, Wave Soaks Bing Kumo”
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I think Google introduced wave as a solution for very messy problem of mail threads. You can meet it in every organization collaborating with mail. I see potential in wave option…
Though these products have an uphill task ahead, I believe that Wave and Bing have definitely upped the ante by their own standards. The problem is that they don’t offer something that is compelling enough to force the traditional users to move from what they are using. I use “Google” for search and “Microsoft’s Sharepoint” for collaboration needs and looking at whatever I am able to digest so far I would continue with them at least for next few years.