I can't access Groove's web site, I guess they're swamped. Anyway, now that I know what it's about, I can wait another day to try it. Looks promising.

How is this going to compete with Zaplet I wonder. Groove seems more open to partnerships, which would give them an edge since both companies want to be platforms. Will Microsoft want to buy Groove, while Zaplet has Cisco, Oracle and Novell onboard? Will this be a tech fight, with XML/SOAP stuff against Java stuff? Sounds fun.

09/04/2002 update: while Microsoft did indeed get quite close to Groove, Zaplet is almost out of the picture. Here's an essay by Joel Spolsky about platforms and Ray Ozzie's comments.

03/29/04 update: David Stutz: The Natural History of Software Platforms via John Ludwig: "APIs don't make a platform -- installed base makes a platform".