Two products we're sure to hear more about

The one thing a successful online company can't afford to do is stand still - innovation is the only way forward in this internet world (I still remember when Altavista was the search engine of choice).

And two of THE biggest names in the internet have shown they're not prepared to settle for second best with two new products announced this week.

Microsoft's Bing (tagline: A better way to search) and Google Wave (A new model for communication and collaboration on the web) were unveiled over the last couple of days in the US. And the worst thing for any geek is that we can't actually play with them at the moment...

Let's take Bing first (Bing apparently standing for Bing is not Google). The battle of the search engines was pretty much settled a little while back with the all-conquering Google taking the lion's share of search traffic.

Results are categorised, and not just ordered by the most popular. This promises to make finding a restaurant, a digital camera or the answer to a health query easier than by using a standard search engine. Hence this is being branded a 'decision engine' and not just another search engine.

This is how the Bing development team describe it:

"We included features that deliver the best results, presented in a more organized way to simplify key tasks and help you make important decisions faster.

"And features like cashback, where we actually give you money back on great products, and Price Predictor, which actually tells you when to buy an airline ticket in order to help get you the best price — help you make smarter decisions, and put money back in your pocket."

The intriguing thing is that Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak described this as "the most astounding software demo I've ever seen". I have a lot of respect for Woz (and can recommend his book iWoz to anyone with an interest in computers and the internet) and so my intrigue is automatically raised by this high praise.

But it's fair to say Microsoft is generally one of the less respected companies in most geek's opinions - which means the generally positive response this has received on the internet, and more importantly my geeky Twitter feed, means Bing can't be written off.

Bing are promising to give another 50 preview codes out tomorrow, so I've signed up as a fan on Facebook in the hope I can snare early access and bring a bigger report in the next few weeks.

The one thing I will say is that New Zealand remains way down the priority list and so the chances of getting a usable Bing experience in Aotearoa right from the get-go are probably quite slim.

But remember where you read about Bing first!

I'm probably a little more excited about Google Wave at the moment. Again, I've signed up in the hope that I can get early access to test drive (and this meant having to write an explanation - in haiku form - why I wanted access (kudos to Google for making trying to sign up for beta access entertaining)).

Here's a description from the official Google blog:

"Here's how it works: In Google Wave you create a wave and add people to it. Everyone on your wave can use richly formatted text, photos, gadgets, and even feeds from other sources on the web. They can insert a reply or edit the wave directly. It's concurrent rich-text editing, where you see on your screen nearly instantly what your fellow collaborators are typing in your wave. That means Google Wave is just as well suited for quick messages as for persistent content - it allows for both collaboration and communication. You can also use "playback" to rewind the wave and see how it evolved."

The screenshots make it look like a combination of instant messages, e-mail, browsing and social networking all in one. And by Google making their Application Programming Interface (API) available to developers means there's likely to be a huge number of third-party add-ons available when the product is released.

I can see huge possibilities for collaborative working in an office environment, as well as providing friends a way of group communication without resorting to the more visible Facebook conversations.

Unfortunately the preview video is a little hefty - it comes in around an hour and half, but if you want a flavour for how Google Wave is being received, just do a quick Twitter search.

Here's a couple at random:

"I am completely geeking out about the Google Wave Preview from Google I/O. Where do I sign up?"

"WOW!!! Google Wave could potentially transform how people communicate on the Internet."

Yep, Google have got geeks interested in yet another one of their ideas. I would not be surprised to find out in two years that Google Wave has become a massive part of the internet's future.

And you can tell everyone where you read about it first!

So what do you think? Do you see any future for Bing or Google Wave? Let me know what you think.

Oh, and don't forget to follow me on Twitter for up-to-date news and reviews.