Greetings to Google Wave, a unique experimental service from the company that, according to many, has the potential to be the next big thing after e-mail and bundles instant messaging, photo sharing and other tools in sone application. This new Wave has been described as “a real-time communication platform which combines aspects of email, instant messaging, wikis, web chat, social networking and project management to build one elegant, in-browser communication client”.

Google Wave is the creation of the same team that was behind Google Maps and the bunch seems to have run into something revolutionary, right from the outset! This five-person startup looks all set to be one of the most talked about Google products ever.

According to a Software Engineering Manager who introduced Wave at Google I/O, :

A “wave” is equal parts conversation and document, where people can communicate and work together with richly formatted text, photos, videos, maps and more. 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.

To simplify things, consider it to be an extension, or rather an evolution of existing e-mail, IM and file-sharing technologies. With Wave, users can share images, videos, converse in what Google terms a collaborative conversation stream.

In Google Wave users can 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 to see how it evolved.”

You can then refer back to a Wave to see the whole conversation and document thread. When a Wave is open on two users’ screens, messages bounce right off Google’s servers into another user’s browsers to enable instant messaging-like communication.

Users don’t even need to hit send to communicate their message as each typed character shows up in the other Wave user’s browser less than a second after it’s been typed. True real time.

You can also check a box to keep communication private until you’re ready for the recipient to see what you’ve written. Want to add more participants to the conversation? Just drag and drop the contact into the browser window.

Another facet of Google Wave is that this happens to be an Open Source project, and more of a platform, less a finished product. So, what we’re talking bout here is an entire new API that allows developers to do almost anything they please, like integrating a Twitter client, playing games on to a wave. From gaming or official work to a simple chat, the Google Wave might just change the way we communicate with our buddies, in the near future.

There are plenty of other features, all of which make the product more fascinating. Have you signed up for the test coming later this year? It’s good to get in at the ground floor. The more you test it and give Google your precious feedback, the better the product should be in the end.

Microsoft launched Bing at the beginning of the month, after a lengthy development period and months of internal testing. And with the unveiling of Microsoft’s new search engine “Bing”, the battle in the field of search engine has heated up. For Microsoft it is not just about reinventing its search engine, but also about delivering a new consumer brand. The search engine is pretty different in respect of user experience.

Bing is all about the users preferences. It is build with a deep understanding of how people really want to use the Web. Bing is an important first step forward in our long-term effort to deliver innovations in search that enable people to find information quickly and use the information they’ve found to accomplish tasks and make smart decisions. Usually search engines do a decent job of helping people navigate the Web and find information, but they are unable to let them use the information they find. And now Bing is here to solve all these problems. Bing yields more relevant and more up-to-date search results.

Bing is not just about reinventing a search engine but it also promise a new brand in the market. Microsoft has acknowledged repeatedly that Live Search suffered from a branding perspective, and Bing is the answer.

Bing is positioned as a filter for the information overload users have to navigate with traditional search engines. Bing aims for an increased relevancy, a new way to organize search results, task simplification and greater insight.

It is a story of déjà vu all over again. Reinventing the search engine is an attempt to make some progress in the search engine wars. The question is whether Bing will actually end up making any difference?

The challengers in the field of battle plays out as follows. Google controls a gigantic chunk of it and is looking dangerously aggressive regarding those parts it does not control. Microsoft controls a very small section of the field, but has hordes of ammunition [cash] and is looking for a way to use it. Yahoo has its own section, but is under siege and appears ripe for the taking. This leaves Microsoft and Google as the two main predators.

The biggest thing about Bing is the new search parameters. Microsoft has actually tried to create a new niche search approach. The Bing search function is tailored to four verticals to enhance the search results. They include the buying decision, finding local businesses, making health decisions and planning trips. Put another way, the engine is designed to emphasize product purchases, health, local businesses and travel, which just happen to be four of the bigger niches on the web.

Google has always relied on the pillar of its search engine. Generally, Google is viewed as the best when it comes to producing quality results. Although the last Microsoft search engine, wasn’t terrific, but wsith Bing, it hopes to change that.

Whether users will end up binging over googling will confirm or deny the relevance of Microsoft’s efforts in search. Both the tools proves that the user experience for both search engines is different, in many ways. Fact is Bing is hard on changing everything, and the Search Wars are heating up. Think on this.

The tiny Norwegian company, Opera software unveiled a new version of its software that’s designed to give users more control over the information they upload and share via the Web. It enable simple sharing of personal computers’ pictures, files or music with anyone on the Internet.

In a bid to “reinvent the Web”, as said by the company, the new service is part of Opera’s Web browser, enables direct downloading from personal computer to personal computer and removes any need for data storage at servers in the middle. Files can be viewed with any browser.

Similar technologies have been available before for tech-savvy consumers, but these have required downloading separate software, paying usage fees, or a long process of uploading content — limiting take-up of the services.

The new feature will be useful for Internet users who are uncomfortable sharing their files and interacting with friends over privately owned Web sites, which set their own rules for privacy, and can’t always be counted on to store files permanently.

Opera Unite lets users set passwords for access to selected files on their computers. In addition, Opera Unite helps users save time they would otherwise spend uploading files to the Web or sending them in an e-mail. Users can choose from a number of pre-installed services to share files, photos, set up a chat room as well as create a personal Web server. Further services will be available to download and when the Opera Unite service officially launches could become a thriving community. The whole process is no more complex than adding a desktop widget.

Opera Unite is quite easy in operation. The product opens up many possibilities for close-knit personal communities. All users have to do to start one is send their address to others and watch them interact with the pages. Access can be public, limited to specific URLs or private, which lets only the creator access their own files, turning Opera into a useful storage facility for when they’re away from the main PC.

Opera has a small share of the desktop browser market, but its mobile browser is the most widely used browser on handsets. Opera is a product that many have heard of and its unique features could help it capture a lot of market share and spark a new wave of personalized Internet. If you can handle the reliance on Opera’s servers to handle the proxy side, Opera 10 is well worth investigating.