Despite their stronghold in the world of email, mapping, photo-sharing, etc., Google has decided to up the ante and delve into the craze that is social-networking. Enter Google Buzz. Rather than operating as a stand-alone website, Buzz is streamlined into Gmail’s web interface. Status updates, Picasa albums, Google Reader pages, and links to sites like Twitter and Flickr are streamed (or “buzzed”) to selected contacts in real-time. Think of it as a marriage between Twitter and Facebook, built directly into the Gmail interface. Could Google Buzz be a hit or are the folks from Mountain View a little late to the party? Will you try it?
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If “they” build it, they will come.
I think it will be a hit. i probably won’t use it because I don’t have time for socializing. :p
…now leave me alone
I agree, Mark – certainly potential here. Unfortunately, Google’s last effort (see: Google Wave), while very interesting and loaded with features, fell flat due to the fact that I couldn’t have it integrated into my Gmail account…and “Buzz” does exactly this. I’m still playing around with it a bit, but it seems promising. Of course, you need a Gmail account to use it. Perhaps this will draw more users to adopt Gmail as their primary client.
This seems like Wave lite. I wonder if they’re trying to take the best of Wave and put it into Buzz and then one day they’ll get rid of Wave or make that just for certain things like putting into tech support or people can put it into their blogs…etc. Wave will be more specialized, companies will use it more than individual people and Buzz will be for the people.
I’m ‘connected’ enough, I think. And I think I provide Google with enough of my personal information as it is….lol.
And Yahoo has had something similar to Twitter integrated into their email…I’ve just never felt the need to use it.