There's always lots of announcements and 'exiting” events in the world of technology, particularly in the area of communications. But, in some respects the last few weeks have been more exiting than usual and for different reasons.

The world of 'search”, ruled over by the kings of Google, has some new up-starts. Wolfram Alpha http://www.wolframalpha.com/ was released a few weeks back. It's not a search engine in the traditional sense. It has been called an 'answer engine” by some early previewers. The idea is that rather than provide a list of results of potentially useful data, it provides the actual answers (as long as it understands the question). I have tried it for a few queries and the results were correct but, only within limited parameters. It's good for factual knowledge such as stocks and shares, dates and measures. I do have some concerns in regard to the data which is supplied to Wolfram Alpha's huge database. It is selected and censored for inclusion. Which is just a little bit in opposition to the ethos of the internet and knowledge in general.

Next came Bing http://www.bing.com/ from Microsoft. Bing is more of a traditional search engine, (Microsoft would not agree) but it has been designed to provide the results in more relevant ways rather than just a list; you get images, video, articles and suggestions of items to purchase if applicable. Microsoft have never liked been third in the search race and are hoping to catch up with Bing.

For myself, the most interesting thing with both of these new offerings is the language they are using to describe their products. The company who developed Wolfram Alpha call it a 'computational knowledge engine” not to be confused with a search engine, and therefore not a threat to Google's dominance as a search provider.
However, Bing is intended to compete with Google, yet Microsoft have called it a 'decision engine”; it helps you make decisions not just give you facts.
Decision engines are a bit of a quest at present with lots of companies seeking to help you make decisions. One more point, when you go to check out Bing you will only get standard search results as all the whistles and bangs only work in the US for now.

The other two announcements which are of interest are the XT from Telecom and Wave from Google.

Since I came to New Zealand I have viewed Telecom and Telecom Mobile with what I can only describe as disdain. Like a lot of my peers, I believe the national telco was the national let down. It was Vodaphone for me, even with it's sometimes limited coverage.
At the recent Priority One sponsored ICT expo here in Tauranga, my opinion changed after a presentation by Gen I about the new XT mobile network from Telecom and its new device lineup. It seems, someone at Telecom has hired someone who has started making valid forward thinking decisions. I am now even thinking of jumping ship and using telecom mobile! But I am still left wondering if their broadband division can catch up?

Lastly, Wave http://wave.google.com/ . Presented to 4000 developers at a conference called Google i/o receiving a standing ovation. Geeky. But 'geeky” Wave is not. Wave has been built around some existing communication protocols and built so that other developers can easily add to it. What it potentially promises is true real time communication and collaboration between remote workers. ( I keep seeing the humans from Wall-e). This is both potentially extremely beneficial to sales staff, designers, medical staff, police etc and dangerous. It's bad enough when we send an email, we later wish we had not. But at least with email we have a delay in the process of receiving, writing and then sending. We can write it then sleep on it. But in wave it's delivered as you write/create it. Potentially, if you delete it it is deleted every where it was delivered; just hope they did not see it first. What this means is that Gen Y will have to learn new etiquette and ways of thinking. They will become either more guarded or more honest, and damn the consequences.
Of course real time communication will involve more voice and video, so a lot of the misunderstanding caused by email will actually be mitigated.

My personal view is that as communication gets better, more immediate and more personal, I have less need to use search or 'decision computational engines”. It will get easier for me to reach out and talk to people for real answers and real help with my decisions. Building real networks with real people.

Please leave a comment if anyone can tell me how the stunt woman on the Telecom XT ad managed to breathe in an air tight container; open it from the inside; open the doors without it flooding/sinking and then sit on top? I think she's more amazing than the network.