Microsoft Shares its Point but Google Waves

Microsoft and Google are the same, yet different. For example, they both offer collaboration tools. Microsoft offers Sharepoint and Google has announced 'Waves'.

Microsoft Sharepoint is a web-based repository for documents (and anything that passes as a document in the Microsoft universe, such as spreadsheets and presentations). Sharepoint also has a built-in list that has no counterpart in the desktop world. And Sharepoint can be extended with programs written on the .NET platform.

Google Waves is a web based repository for conversations -- e-mail threads -- with the addition of anything that passes for a document in the Google universe.

Sharepoint and Waves are similar in that they are built for collaboration. They are also similar in that they use version control to keep previous revisions of documents.

Sharepoint and Waves are different, and their differences say a lot about their respective companies.

Sharepoint is an extension of the desktop. It provides a means for sharing documents, yet it ties in to Microsoft Office neatly. It is a way for Microsoft to step closer to the web and help their customers move.

Waves is an extension of the web forum thread model, tying in to Google documents. It is a way for Google to step closer to the desktop (or functions that are performed on the desktop) and help their customers.

I've used Microsoft Sharepoint and seen demonstration of Waves. I generally discount demonstrations -- anyone can have a nice demo -- but Google's impressed me.

The big difference is in the approach. Microsoft has introduced Sharepoint as a way for people who use desktops and the desktop metaphor to keep using them. Google, on the other hand, has positioned Waves as a replacement for e-mail.

Why should I mention e-mail? Because e-mail is a big problem for most organizations. E-mail is a model of the paper-based mail system, and not effective in the computer world. We know the problems with e-mail and e-mail threads  (reading messages from the bottom up, losing attachments, getting dropped from lists) and the problems are not small. Yet we believed that the problem was in ourselves, not the e-mail concept.

Google has a better way. They move away from e-mail and use a different model, a model of a conversation. People can join and leave as they wish. New joiners can review older messages quickly. Everyone has the latest versions of documents.

And here is the difference between Microsoft and Google. Microsoft created a tool -- Sharepoint -- to address a problem. Sharepoint is nice but frustrating to use; it is an extension of the desktop operating system and expensive to administrate. It offers little for the user and has no concept of e-mail or conversations. Google has taken the bold step of moving to a new concept, thinking (rightfully so in my opinion) that the problems of collaboration cannot be solved with the old metaphors. Google has started with the notion of conversation and built from there.

Just as EDSAC was an electronic version of a mechanical adding machine and EDVAC was a true electronic computer, e-mail is an electronic version of paper mail and Waves is a conversation system. Microsoft is apparently content with e-mail; Google is willing to innovate.