– Jens Rasmussen, Senior Staff Engineer, Google

“Many people believe search today is a great tool; however we believe search is still in its infancy and there is much more that people can and should expect from their search service. Bing … is designed to help people find the shortest distance from their initial search query to the point of making an informed decision.”

– John Mangelaars, VP, Consumer and Online, Microsoft EMEA

In reading these quotes and looking into the latest four-letter words (“Bing” from Microsoft and “Wave” from Google) to sweep the Web, I’m struck by the incredible optimism of the people who are developing tools for the Web.

I see these Web tools (search engines, e-mail, and social networks) and say things like: ‘Wow. Amazing that these are available to me today, and for free or little cost. And they help me work faster and better.’ These folks say things like: ‘Well, those are neat but they have shortcomings X, Y, and Z. Here’s another approach we’re working on.’

Google Wave

Thus we have Google Wave (still in development and not yet available) and Microsoft’s Bing (a “decision engine” and not, the Microsofties insist, a “search engine”).

Bing is out and available. Wave was previewed for the tech/developer crowd last week. How they fit into the future, or how they fade away, I’ve no idea yet. But the excitement (mixed with angst) is that they might change the way we communicate.

Let me leave you with two statements from the folks working on Bing and Wave, the first serious and the second (mostly) tongue-in-cheek.

“Microsoft has designed Bing to help people quickly find the information they need on daily routine searches and in order to accomplish tasks, including making a purchase decision, planning a trip, researching a health condition or finding a local business…. The explosive growth of online content has continued unabated, and Bing was developed as a tool to help people more easily navigate through the information overload that has come to characterise many of today’s search experiences…. across all search engines, as many as 30% of searches are abandoned without a satisfactory result.” [source: comScore Inc.]

– Microsoft news release, May 28, 2009

“Don’t be shy, you guys. If you see something you  like, don’t be shy letting us know. We can handle pretty much any amount of applause.”

– Lars Rasmussen, Software Engineering Manager, Google, to developers when previewing Wave

– Charles Wasilewski