Google Buzz is the latest thing from Cyberspace those whiz kids at Google. Some might argue that it’s Google’s response to not being able to buy Twitter or Facebook off of their crafty innovators and other might argue that it’s just the next step in social networking. I’m going to have a play with it as I write this and see what I think…
What is Google Buzz?
Google Buzz is a social networking platform where you can share updates, photos, videos and start conversations about the things that interest you most. It’s built into Gmail so there’s no fiddling around with setting up an account and you can automatically follow your contacts and ultimately the people you already chat with the most – so it’s blurring those boundaries between professional and social contacts a little further still. You can even share to choose your Buzz with the entire world or keep it private between a small group of chums.
Buzz goes further than allowing simple updates- it automatically pulls up images and links, plays videos and lets you see photos the way that they were meant to be seen, in all their high-quality image glory, downloaded quickly and seamlessly. You can also connect with other sites you use such as Picassa, Flickr, Google Reader and Twitter, so that you can keep up with your friends and they can keep up with you, all from one central place.
Any comments that are left on your posts can be sent directly to your Gmail inbox when you include @ e.g @tomjones. You can then respond directly from your inbox to keep the conversation fluid, unlike Facebook or Twitter where you would have to login to your respective account to post a response. Buzz will also recommend posts from people who aren’t your friends but that it thinks might interest you. This is similar to the Twitter Retweet function – you may Retweet a post that particularly interests you so that it reaches all of your followers who may not necessarily be following the person the Tweet originated from. But Buzz this extra work for you, so to speak.
Another great feature is that it works on your smart phone and with geo-tracking you can keep track of what people close to you are Buzzing about, taking the conversation to a whole new local level.
What do I think?
Ok, so I can accept that the concept is very good. As I’m very involved with social media as part of my job, anything that makes my many accounts easier to keep track of and essentially saves time and keyboard effort is a plus with me. I’m also a fan of the geo tracking functionality as I think this could be really handy for marketing new brands at events; you will see who is talking about your brand, where they are and in real time. It also has potential to introduce a slightly more “social” form of social networking where you can actually locate and meet up with people in the flesh if you wish. However, I have a couple of problems that I think should be addressed:
- Google Buzz is linked to my Gmail account- this concerns me because every now and then Google decides that it would like to chuck me out of my Google account and not let me in no matter how hard I try. It has done this to me twice in the last 6 months, once losing my entire account to cyberspace and the last time letting me back in as though nothing had occurred two months later. So, my point is that if I really get into Buzz, so much so that I can’t live without it, are Google going to whip it away from me cold turkey and make me start over?
- Although Google says that you don’t need to create a profile to use Buzz you do if you want people to find you on Buzz and if, like me and the rest of those Search Engine Optimisation hungry peeps, you want your Buzz posts to show up in Google search results. And I found a bit of a glitch when editing my profile details. I wasn’t quite happy with the way my details were displaying so I clicked “edit details” and instead of having my previous profile details saved for me to edit in the box fields all it had saved was my name so that I had re-type the whole lot. I don’t have all day, Google!
- I have a feeling, I could just be wrong, that this is just another string to Google’s ever-expanding orchestra and little more than that. In that, after releasing this last week they will already have moved on to something else. With Google Wave before Buzz, we went through that whole phase where getting free invites to use the preview of Wave were like gold dust and everyone was raving about it for a few weeks and now there’s something new to tantalise us, a new Buzz as it were. If Google were more stringent to concentrate on just one thing at a time and perfect those things with user feedback more quickly then I’m guessing that the masses would be a lot more satisfied for the most part. However, Buzz could be the next Twitter, who saw that one turning out quite the way it did?
Well these are just my humble opinions; you should make sure yours as informed as possible with a recap of what Google sees as Buzz’s highlights…
Google Buzz features, a recap
No setup needed – automatically follow the people you email and chat with the most in Gmail.
Share publicly or privately – publish your ideas to the world or just to your closest friends.
Inbox integration – comments get sent right to your inbox so it’s easy to keep the conversation going.
Photo friendly – see thumbnails with each post, and browse full-screen photos from popular sites.
Connect sites you already use – import your stuff from Twitter, Picasa, Flickr, and Google Reader.
See updates in real time – new posts and comments pop in as they happen. No refresh required.
Just the good stuff – Buzz recommends interesting posts and weeds out ones you’re likely to skip.
Did you know that Chichester Design is an authorized Google Apps resellers? If you were thinking about getting Gmail so that you can check out Google Buzz, why not consider opting for a Google Apps Premier account that incorporates Gmail and many other fantastic functions? Google Apps is available from Chichester Design today. Contact info@chichesterdesign.co.uk for more information.
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