Comments on: Ray Ozzie: Microsoft is not threatened by netbooks, Google Wave is ‘anti-web’

By: Atul Salgaonkar

Atul Salgaonkar — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 21:58:49 +0000

I was at the event and, while I don't want to diss the writer in any way, the edited content leaves out some subtle aspects of Ray's comments.

Ray seemed genuinely respectful about the pioneering aspects of Wave and also mentioned how it is very similar to Groove. The "anti-web" comment is accurate but related to the way complexity is introduced and managed by the Wave. Ray was responding to a question from the audience and don't know if it was a planted question or not. Those who are more interested can review the event video.

Standard disclaimer: No links to any of the companies or presenters.

By: Anthony Ha

Anthony Ha — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 21:50:46 +0000

Like Pat, I'd definitely be interesting in seeing you elaborate on the idea that “Google and Zoho will never surpass Microsoft Office.” Do you think Office will be on top forever? That whatever beats Office hasn't been invented yet?

By: Anthony Ha

Anthony Ha — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 21:48:41 +0000

Yeah, and to be clear both Levy and Ozzie were open about the similarities between Groove and Wave. But that didn't stop Ozzie from slagging Wave.

By: Walter

Walter — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 21:20:10 +0000

And to add to what Vivek asks — Real time typing review is not madated and not the least of the features offrered by Wave…

By: Vivek Puri

Vivek Puri — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 19:56:07 +0000

Imran, did you run a survey for – “no one in a corporate wants to see in real time what the other is typing too”

By: Pat Kelly

Pat Kelly — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 19:54:46 +0000

Office dominates the corporate landscape for the rest of time? You do realize that would be the first time in history and a sad time at that. Things change man, get used to it. The main thing SharePoint does better than Wave is cost of lot of friggin money, take forever to implement, and force users to work to fit the technology instead of the technology being flexible enough to fit the way people really communicate and collaborate. Email is still the primary collaboration, document management, workflow engine, etc. in the enterprise – beating SharePoint is the easy part, beating Outlook will be the true tipping point. MSFT had a great run, but every dominate company is eventually pushed aside in the name of progress. MSFT's revenue depends on server and desktop software – stuck in the innovator's dilemma, they cannot compete against companies solely focused on the web.

By: Imran Hussain

Imran Hussain — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 17:58:25 +0000

I disagree with you claiming Wave being a threat to SharePoint or Exchange. They both do a LOT more than Wave, and no one in a corporate wants to see in real time what the other is typing too. SharePoint integrates with other products seamlessly such as Office Suite.
And no matter what Silicon Valley predicts, Google or Zoho will never surpass Microsoft Office. So, SharePoint isn't going anywhere no matter how many Waves come.

By: Anonymous (have to)

Anonymous (have to) — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 11:12:01 +0000

SharePoint is a way more complex and is certainly more anti-web: it's very slow in the extranet, very intertwined with active directory, and way less open than Wave is planned to be.
Ray Ozzie had to say what he said, because Wave is a big threat to the most fast growing Microsoft server product, SharePoint, and a serious threat to Exchange as well.

We on the other side, have to say what we have to say, which is: what Ozzie said has more to do with Microsoft PR than with Google technology.

With full respect to Ray Ozzie and with full understanding of his duty as a senior corporate executive.

By: Shannon John Clark

Shannon John Clark — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 10:56:11 +0000

yup, my thoughts exactly – Google Wave is in many ways what Groove could have been perhaps should have been.

Full disclosure, my Uncle was for about a year hired by Microsoft post-Groove acquisition to lead the development of the next release of Groove – he's no longer at Microsoft, I haven't yet gotten a chance to get the inside scoop on where Groove is/where it may be going in the future.

But definitely Wave is very similar – and in many ways (being Open sourced, designed at a protocol vs a closed piece of software) it is far MORE weblike than Groove or Lotus Notes before it ever were (hmm replication – wasn't that the core of Lotus Notes also?)

By: leonardspeiser

leonardspeiser — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 09:26:31 +0000

The Wave comment is a little strange coming from Ray. Groove was remarkably similar to Wave (given the times it lived in). From the good ole Wayback machine for groove.net:

groove networks is currently developing new and highly innovative PC/Internet communication software that will complement the major forms of PC-based, network-based communication methods in use today: eMail, the Web, and Notes. The company was founded by Ray Ozzie, who left Lotus/IBM in late 1997 to devote his time exclusively to this new idea & venture. He had previously founded Iris Associates, in 1984, to create the product eventually known as Lotus Notes, now in use by more than 25 million users at most major corporations worldwide. Iris, acquired by Lotus in 1994, is widely recognized as one of the most capable software engineering firms in the PC software industry today.