In a surprise move, OGS has merged with Nova. The new site carries OGS branding, and is currently accessible through both URLs. Although the official announcement says secrecy around the merger was required “for various technical reasons”, it sounds more like a political/organizational decision.
In any case, credit where credit is due. The merger was pulled off relatively smoothly. Hopefully those few features which have gone missing since the previous incarnation of OGS will be restored in the next update. Of the few transition-induced hiccups, the one most likely to adversely impact users was the loss of a day’s worth of moves from the OGS database. However, in the long-term, I’m cautiously optimistic that the move is a positive one and that future developments will lead to an even better place to play go.