LostCarPark's Journal

I've been playing with Wave for a couple of weeks now, and I think it's a pretty good idea, but it's going to be a while before it's ready for serious use.

First, while the software is pretty good, there are clearly some gaps around the edges, a few features that say "not implemented yet", and a few nice-to-haves. Obviously it's a preview version, so this is to be expected, and I'm sure it will keep getting better and better.

Second, browsers need to develop. Wave can get quite sluggish at times, especially on big Waves (we've got one with 142 messages plus maps, photos and collaborative drawings (using a plug-in called Canvas). It can be a bit of a drag to navigate. Google Chrome has a pretty fast JavaScript engine, which definitely helps - it's noticably faster than Firefox. However, Wave is a protocol as well as a webapp, so I expect it won't be long before we see desktop Wave apps, just like we have desktop email apps, and these will remove Wave from the browser, and make things a bit easier.

Third, Wave has a lot of potential for corporate use, potentially taking business from Microsoft Office Communicator. However, a lot of companies won't want their content on Google's servers. Fortunately, since Wave is a protocol, they'll be able to set up their own Wave server. I'm not sure when the server software to do this will be released.

Finally, as long as the number of users is restricted, it's going to be of limited use. I presume that this is just to facilitate the preview, and as it develops, it's going to be more generally accessible. For now, we seem to be left feeling, this would be great if only Dave was here...

So I think it has huge potential, but it's probably going to take a couple of years to reach it. For now, it's a lot of fun to play with, but playing is all that's really feasible.

Having said that, if you want to come join us and play with it, I have some spare invite codes. Reply here or drop me an email if you'd like one.

Microsoft want to buy Yahoo and argue that it will be good for competition because the combined entity will be better able to compete against Google. Google disagree, arguing that Microsoft will use their dominance in the operating system arena to push their search engine and advertising.

I know Google want to protect their own strong position, but I think they have a point. Microsoft have used Windows to promote MSN search, Hotmail and to a lesser extent, advertising on MSN.

I've never been convinced by the argument that having less players on the field can be good for competition. It would more likely polarise the market into just MS/Yahoo and Google, with smaller players either getting bought up or pushed out.

There are still niches for smaller players, particularly in specialist areas like blog searches. However, in a polarised market, I think it would be much harder for these to survive. And that can hardly be a good thing.

Let's hope the competition authorities will see sense and tell Microsoft to back off.