So we at KayWeb will take the core code of Google Wave and plant it on our servers, and build innovative extensions of it for our clients. KayWeb will be joined in doing this by most of our competitors. Google will have their code being used - at least in part - on all important business applications that wish to take advantage of this browser-based technology.

My main thoughts post watching:

Google Wave is the greatest mass web application to hit us since email.

It truly is what email would be if it were invented today.

Let me know your thoughts!

With Internet Explorer being the default browser of almost all PCs, the default homepage Internet Explorer sent people to was Microsoft's MSN. This homepage had a big bar at the top with the word SEARCH beside it for people to search from MSN.

This means for people to get to Google, they physically had to type google.com into the URL bar. Stats show they did this despite their first port of call being Microsoft's offering.

Other advantages include the fact that Microsoft's Hotmail free email product and its Messenger live chat product were by far and away global market leaders. And Microsoft made dozens of attempts to lead people to their MSN search offering on many occasions.

But stats show people always left and went to Google. They did so at their own accord.

Of course Google advertised well to get the message out that they are a tremendous search engine. But in the end, people made Google their port of call for search.

The reason this occurred, and has continued to occur despite MSN re-releases, re-brandings, alliances, etc... is because Microsoft search is inferior to Google search.

Coming to Bing... best case scenario will be that Bing is as good as Google. How will Microsoft reclaim their lost audience?

I don't think they can. If they take a slice of the market, it will again prove insignificant against Google's growing empire.

Personally, I'm not a fan of a monopoly and love competition in a marketplace.

But at the end of the day, we're not talking Coles and Woolworths who sell the exact same stuff.

We are talking two search engines, one of which has been highly inferior until now.

Until a like product is introduced to the market, then mass-marketed to searchers, Google will remain in its own league as an internet search monopoly.

Working with them they are. Google and Twitter have met, while personnel at Google have openly expressed admiration about Twitter's search engine - which is like Google in real-time, indexing people's live tweets!

The UK Telegraph report suggests Google may be looking at a way to index Twitter feeds in order to not re-invent the wheel. It also suggests Google Co-Founder Larry Page wants to look at ways to make real-time searches available via the global market-leading search engine.

Google has already made changes to their search results output in recent months by introducing Google Universal Search. Universal search basically means when you search for something, the results will bring up the usual results, as well as related Video results, News results, Blog results, Image results, etc.

Google universal search allows the search results to be more dynamic.

Judging by Google's motivation behind the universal search (making search more dynamic), an incorporation of Twitter seems 'sensical'.

Incorporating Twitter somehow will make results even more dynamic.

Watch this space...

Although I am not certain what that means, it must be pretty magnificent if Microsoft expects to make any dent into a search market dominated by Google globally.

Google's search engine market share in the United States is circa 65%, while it is close to 90% in Australia.

I think a partnership between Yahoo and Microsoft is the best way a significant-enough dent can be made on Google's very dominant market share.

Having attended the same conference last year, the biggest improvement was the inclusion of Google. A search marketing conference without Google is no search marketing conference, and unfortunately that was the case in 2008. Google was represented by both its Australia & New Zealand General Manager Karim Temsamani and Tony Keusgen of its Technology Markets division.

Temsamani talked about the fact that even their multi-billion dollar company was affected by the global economic crisis. But he offered positives overall for the web industry, stating "recessions are good for innovation". He also offered positives for the smaller players, stating "it is easier to get ahead when your competition is slowing down".

Temsamani also applauded Kevin Rudd's National Broadband Network (NBN) policy as the "greatest enabler of change that Australian businesses could wish for".

Temsamani talked about the future of web and felt the notion of "openness" as a way forward.

This sentiment was supported by Keusgen, who said an "open" web and "user first" were the most important notions leading Google to success.

The reason Keusgen weighed in with that was because of a question I put to Fairfax Digital's Chief Operating Officer, Nic Cola.

I blogged recently about News Limited Chairman Rupert Murdoch's crazy idea of charging for online news. So as Cola was representing Murdoch's competition, I asked:

"Will Fairfax rule out a similar move in the future?"

I was surprised Cola passed up a golden opportunity to distance themselves from the 'closed' approach being proposed by Murdoch. He said Fairfax Digital will not rule that out by saying they were "always looking at ways to monetise our website". Keusgen, sitting on the same panel as Cola, said Google's successful policy was "putting the user first", clearly rejecting the ramblings of News Limited and Fairfax Digital.

The conference also had a strong focus on mobile internet. It solidly covered mobile applications for the iPhone, and also for Blackberry and Google's Android.

The conference also covered local search, with Sensis representatives and the True Local CEO speaking about their latest offerings in this space.

Overall, a good experience and I feel more illuminated as a result of attending.

Please see my video review of the CeBIT Web Forward internet marketing conference from the Exhibition Centre above.

I completely agree. Simply said, internet is too slow in Australia. Most people won't know the difference until they experience it. Spend our money, speed it up, then let's see who will complain. Let's see who will call for studies then.

Nobody.