What’s the (Google) Buzz? Tell me What’s Happening
This week Google announced their contribution to the growing world of Social Networking with the launch of Google Buzz, a Twitter-like communal update/microblogging function, with added service-integration (images, maps, video etc), that sits within Gmail. Having been initially excited, then bewildered, then nonplussed about Google Wave last year, we were keen to see whether this latest Google tool would be more interesting and/or useful to us from both a personal and agency perspective.
Social updates within email is not a new concept – Yahoo has been running Yahoo Updates since 2008, Microsoft mail offers integration with other services and even AOL just announced a similar service that unlike Google Buzz also includes Facebook integration. All these other email services currently have more users than Gmail, so why would people suddenly turn to Google for their online socialising, especially when Twitter and Facebook (with its 400 million users) are already doing such a great job?
As Mashable rightly puts it: “Facebook is threatening Google, but Google isn’t threatening Facebook because it doesn’t offer any features so great that they incentivize people to leave behind their existing networks or spend their time updating and following yet another one when their friends are already all on Facebook or Twitter.
One place where Google Buzz could really take off, though, is with smartphone users. The mobile version of Buzz will allow users to see posts from in their vicinity using geo-location technology. Gizmodo agrees: “Google Buzz is slightly more insane on Android phones and iPhone than the desktop: There’s a revamped, Buzzier Google homepage; you can post entirely using your voice; and a new version of Google Maps eats Yelp’s lunch.”
Despite its opinion that Google is suffering from “Facebook envy”, Gigaom was swift to highlight some of Google Buzz’s useful features: “It borrows the best elements of sites like Twitter (status updates, following), Flickr (a nice photo viewer), Friendfeed (condensed real-time information), Tumblr (encouraging commenting on followed friends), …Oh, and Facebook (private and public sharing controls, in-line media, etc., etc.).
The trouble is that we already have tools for all of that elsewhere. Perhaps a better functionality from Google would be to offer aggregation of all our existing networks and tools in one place – outbound updates from us, and inbound – those of our friends.
The Official Google Buzz launch video
One area where Google could potentially score over Twitter, at least from a business persecptive, is advertising. Twitter has yet to monetise their network, but Google won’t have such qualms, and they have the ad system in place to do smart things with it immediately. This will make it a more appealing platform for brands, but perhaps less so for users, who appreciate Twitter being an ad-free haven.
As with any major Social Media developments, the launch of Google Buzz caused something of a debate here in the C&M office. When asked for his initial reactions, our resident whippersnapper, Jake, said “I think it’s harder to build a social network into an email client, than it is to do it the other way round like Facebook, who are in a much stronger position. That said, I think Buzz may be the incentive to connect socially via Gmail, something that I only really use for admin stuff. It would be pretty useful for me, as I heavily use other Google apps like Reader and Picasa.”
Whereas Claire – like me an early Twitter adopter – had a slightly different take: “I see Buzz as competing more with Twitter, but why? Twitter’s great, it allows me to connect with people I find interesting but don’t necessarily have a personal relationship with. I like that. I don’t want to only connect with my existing friends (I have Facebook for that) or invite people I don’t know into my personal email (which is why I like Twitter). Conundrum.”
She has a valid point. As someone who uses Yahoo as my main personal email service, and has very few friends currently using Gmail, I can’t see Google Buzz taking off for me any time soon, either. The general feeling is that to become a serious contender to the Facebooks and Twitters of this world, Google Buzz would have to offer something completely new that would revolutionise the way we talk to each other, in the way that Facebook squashed MySpace with its advanced networking features.
No sign of such a revolution just yet, but I will be interested to see how it pans out – and would certainly like to hear your thoughts on the subject.
For the complete lowdown on Google Buzz, visit the official Google blog.
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sach patel
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John @ ACHICA
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Roger Warner, C&M
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