Google has finally launched its new social product, Buzz, at an event held at its Mountain View, CA headquarters. Google Buzz is an easy way to start conversations, share updates, photos, videos, add comments and much more - right from a Gmail account. The updates, which are often termed as 'Buzz', are available in real-time to the users right in their Gmail Inbox. Head to http://buzz.google.com and check if it is being made available to you from your PC or iPhone/Android browser. Yes, Google Buzz has also been rolled out for iPhone and Android platform, leaving the rest mobile platforms behind for the time being. Buzz is free from any sign-up or setup hassles.
Google Buzz is being heavily compared with Facebook acquired FriendFeed service that allows posting, sharing and viewing photos, videos and commenting within the stream of updates. If you can recollect, two years back, Yahoo had introduced a service named - Buzz, which is mostly a social news service that collates user-select content from the web and ranks it on basis of popularity.
Do note that Buzz doesn't have any character limitation like Twitter. However, that doesn't mean one can paste stories and lengthy blog posts just for heck of sharing.
Here are the key features of Google Buzz:
Gmail Inbox Integration:
It will take place without pushing update emails to Inbox mail as the updates will be dynamically updated in real-time to form threaded Buzz conversations. Also, all basic keyboard shortcuts for Gmail work for Buzz as well. It's obviously visible that Google is counting on those billions of Gmail users who'll wish to try out Buzz.. But why mix social pleasure with mails? Whether Google should have included Buzz to Gmail or not is going to be a pro-longed debate. Many would like to keep their serious mailing stuff separate from social conversations. However, getting an all-in-one-time access is nothing new. It's being developed previously like the Adobe Air apps that offer support for multiple account login to share content socially.
Automatic Friends Lists:
Based on the contacts you frequently mail and chat with, Buzz will automatically make names appear in your Buzz stream. Buzz will also give you a list of "Recommended Buzz" users that will based on 'friend-of-friend' content sharing into your stream - even if those folks aren't acquainted to the user.
This may raise a question of privacy. For instance, Adam is a popular guy and is on Becky's list and wishes to share updates only with Becky's friends. But what if a contact of Sam who is on Becky's is recommended to connect with Adam? Also it's kinda unsure whether the email address could be held as private from the connected 'friend-of-friend'.
Richer, Faster Sharing Experience:
In Buzz, Google focuses on one of the most crucial aspects in social arena today - real-time sharing and updates. Buzz allows importing feeds from Twitter, Picasa, Flickr and Google Reader to stay updated with the contacts on those services. Photos from Flickr and Picasa would appear as thumbnail and clicking on thumbnail will give an overlay interface based full view of the image. The posts and comments on the posts get updated in real-time and one doesn't have to refresh the page. Note that real-time update may not be supported in all web browsers and may cause freezing issues with them abruptly.
Public and Private Sharing:
An option of public and private sharing of updates is offered. So, one has a choice to make update publicly viewable or only for private network of friends and family. Public updates to Google Profiles of the user and the contacts who follow them. Private updates can be shared across the private network that could be setup. Note that public updates will be visible on the user's Google Profile and will eventually show up in Google Search. So, be careful what information you share in the Buzz. Do not, I repeat, DO NOT share personal information in the Buzz. Be afraid, be very afraid.
Buzz on the Mobile:
Google has brought Buzz for mobile in two ways - as a web app and as a layer for Google Maps for mobile. It is currently available for iPhone OS and Android OS based cellphone owners. Not only that, Buzz also brings support for voice shortcut in quick search widget that will allow posting a buzz by simply speaking - post buzz and then follows the text. Phones with Android 2.0 or higher version would be able to avail buzz.google.com and the voice shortcuts.
The Buzz web app will appear like Gmail for iPhone and Android phones that will offer drop down menu options of creating and viewing new updates. Users can set their location for both iPhone and Android to view the posts and updates from the users located close to them. Furthermore, from the nearby locations, user can narrow down to a specific location.
Buzz is also available as Layer on Google Maps for Mobile to Symbian S60 and Windows Mobile users along with iPhone and Android users. Note that Symbian S60 users will have to download the Google Maps for Mobile v4.0.0 (1.5MB) to get the Buzz Layer. Users can post a buzz in the form of text with unlimited characters and also attach photos to that buzz. Pressing the # key shows up a Buzz list of the users who recently posted a buzz.
Google has brought Buzz for mobile in two ways - as a web app and as a layer for Google Maps for mobile. It is currently available for iPhone OS and Android OS based cellphone owners. Not only that, Buzz also brings support for voice shortcut in quick search widget that will allow posting a buzz by simply speaking - post buzz and then follows the text. Phones with Android 2.0 or higher version would be able to avail buzz.google.com and the voice shortcuts.
The Buzz web app will appear like Gmail for iPhone and Android phones that will offer drop down menu options of creating and viewing new updates. Users can set their location for both iPhone and Android to view the posts and updates from the users located close to them. Furthermore, from the nearby locations, user can narrow down to a specific location.
Buzz is also available as Layer on Google Maps for Mobile to Symbian S60 and Windows Mobile users along with iPhone and Android users. Note that Symbian S60 users will have to download the Google Maps for Mobile v4.0.0 (1.5MB) to get the Buzz Layer. Users can post a buzz in the form of text with unlimited characters and also attach photos to that buzz. Pressing the # key shows up a Buzz list of the users who recently posted a buzz.
Buzz vs Twitter, Facebook, Foursquare et al
Until yesterday, Google was rumored to introduce Twitter and Facebook rival but we think Google Buzz is just not there yet. Take it clearly from us - Buzz is not going to replace Twitter or Foursquare. We say this for one simple reason that these are simple-to-use services. Also, Buzz itself allows pulling Twitter updates so the existence of Twitter is imminent. On the other hand, Buzz, though touted as easy-to-use, involves several blocks to figure out how it works. Can you recollect the nightmare the average user had to go through to figure out how Google Wave works? We aren't considering tech enthusiasts and geeks in here but the rest of the people had a tough time with Google Wave.
Yahoo had also announced a similar service called the Yahoo Meme, which is hardly being talked about. Also, there wasn't any noteworthy rise in the number of Yahoo Mail users when social features were integrated in its mail service. For that matter, even Hotmail has Buzz-like community/status update sharing features. But for Google, people are likely to create a free Gmail account just when Buzz is available for all. Still, Google is a late entrant to real-time socialnetwork scene. Had the Buzz started couple of years ago, it would've grown big by now.
It's just the Beginning:
Heavy Google Reader users may get a faint idea of what exactly Buzz can do and how it is to be used; for the simple reason that even Buzz has Facebook's impression giving Like, Unlike and Comment options which are self explanatory. Google already has OpenSocial for building social apps and Orkut as its social product.. Google has even launched Google Wave but many people, not surprisingly, have no clue about how it works.
At this moment, there's no flag from Google to combine Buzz with Wave and create a unique 'collaborative conversation' streams that get updated in real-time. However, Google does aim to make Buzz available to business and education sector through Google apps. This will feature of organization limited sharing. Hence, it's just the beginning and more is yet to come.
Buzz is about sharing updates and multimedia in the form of photos and videos but along with it come browser compatibility issues. We believe that Google Chrome would be the most stable of all since it's Google's own product and may cause some issues leading to browser updates. Since it will house in Gmail itself, it might turn out to be a distraction to Gmail semi-Ninjas instead bridging a social gap between user and contacts.
Location sharing is yet another feature users need to be aware of and careful at the same time. For instance, they can set their location as private if they don't wish to share it or state a landmark instead of sharing exact co-ordinates via Google Maps on Mobile. Again, one must note that Google has played it smart by creating a web app for Buzz instead of an app for Apple's App Store. This was done considering the recent cold war between both Apple and Google.
Regarding Google Buzz, rivals Yahoo and Microsoft sure had something to say. Yahoo sent an update to reporters mentioning about Yahoo Updates which is quite similar to Google Buzz. On the other hand, Microsoft had issued a statement immediately after Buzz was launched:
"Busy people don't want another social network, what they want is the convenience of aggregation,"
Microsoft said. "We've done that. Hotmail customers have benefited from Microsoft working with Flickr, Facebook, Twitter and 75 other partners since 2008," it added.
In short, Yahoo and Microsoft intend to state indirectly - been there, done that. However, it would be interesting to see how Google takes it further. Let's not start comparing Apples with Oranges.
Until yesterday, Google was rumored to introduce Twitter and Facebook rival but we think Google Buzz is just not there yet. Take it clearly from us - Buzz is not going to replace Twitter or Foursquare. We say this for one simple reason that these are simple-to-use services. Also, Buzz itself allows pulling Twitter updates so the existence of Twitter is imminent. On the other hand, Buzz, though touted as easy-to-use, involves several blocks to figure out how it works. Can you recollect the nightmare the average user had to go through to figure out how Google Wave works? We aren't considering tech enthusiasts and geeks in here but the rest of the people had a tough time with Google Wave.
Yahoo had also announced a similar service called the Yahoo Meme, which is hardly being talked about. Also, there wasn't any noteworthy rise in the number of Yahoo Mail users when social features were integrated in its mail service. For that matter, even Hotmail has Buzz-like community/status update sharing features. But for Google, people are likely to create a free Gmail account just when Buzz is available for all. Still, Google is a late entrant to real-time socialnetwork scene. Had the Buzz started couple of years ago, it would've grown big by now.
It's just the Beginning:
Heavy Google Reader users may get a faint idea of what exactly Buzz can do and how it is to be used; for the simple reason that even Buzz has Facebook's impression giving Like, Unlike and Comment options which are self explanatory. Google already has OpenSocial for building social apps and Orkut as its social product.. Google has even launched Google Wave but many people, not surprisingly, have no clue about how it works.
At this moment, there's no flag from Google to combine Buzz with Wave and create a unique 'collaborative conversation' streams that get updated in real-time. However, Google does aim to make Buzz available to business and education sector through Google apps. This will feature of organization limited sharing. Hence, it's just the beginning and more is yet to come.
Buzz is about sharing updates and multimedia in the form of photos and videos but along with it come browser compatibility issues. We believe that Google Chrome would be the most stable of all since it's Google's own product and may cause some issues leading to browser updates. Since it will house in Gmail itself, it might turn out to be a distraction to Gmail semi-Ninjas instead bridging a social gap between user and contacts.
Location sharing is yet another feature users need to be aware of and careful at the same time. For instance, they can set their location as private if they don't wish to share it or state a landmark instead of sharing exact co-ordinates via Google Maps on Mobile. Again, one must note that Google has played it smart by creating a web app for Buzz instead of an app for Apple's App Store. This was done considering the recent cold war between both Apple and Google.
Regarding Google Buzz, rivals Yahoo and Microsoft sure had something to say. Yahoo sent an update to reporters mentioning about Yahoo Updates which is quite similar to Google Buzz. On the other hand, Microsoft had issued a statement immediately after Buzz was launched:
"Busy people don't want another social network, what they want is the convenience of aggregation,"
Microsoft said. "We've done that. Hotmail customers have benefited from Microsoft working with Flickr, Facebook, Twitter and 75 other partners since 2008," it added.
In short, Yahoo and Microsoft intend to state indirectly - been there, done that. However, it would be interesting to see how Google takes it further. Let's not start comparing Apples with Oranges.
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