What’s all the Buzz about?

Just when we though that social networking couldn’t get much better Google throw in a easy to use and nicely laid out spanner into the works!

Google Buzz is the newest addition to the Google family. It’s a social media organiser that is built directly into Gmail. According to the guys at Google “it’s a new way to start conversations about things you find interesting.” From first impressions it looks pretty much like Twitter although sharing videos, photos, links and updates appears simpler. Also, because it’s integrated into Gmail you can share all these things with the people you are in contact with the most, as well as connecting up to Picasa, Flickr, Google Reader and Twitter accounts.

It’s been debated in the past that Buzz is not ‘cool enough’ for social media while others say it has the potential to take over the social media world, after reading the latest reports it looks as if the latter is more likely. It seems Google have finally figured out social media as 160,000 posts per hour and 300,000 mobile check-ins per day will tell you. At first it seemed Google were merely adding ‘a little something extra’, as it turns out the little something turns out to be something much bigger.

Why? Well, not only does it do everything Twitter does it also has some very interesting and useful extras, including a recommendation feed. This allows users to get a incoming feed based on friends posts and feedback, Google then filters what news they think would be of interested to the user and distributes it. This is a way for Google to ‘turn down the noise’ and to deliver the updates that matter in real time. Lets face it, people telling the world that they have just brushed their teeth isn’t always something I want to read about.

Buzz also offers a ‘page rank’ type feature for status updates, this means that finding the most ‘clickable’ (interesting) links for example is made easier. If there is something I hate more than seeing the ‘Failwhale’ four or five times a day it’s how unhelpful the ‘find people’ tab and ‘Twitter search’ is – here’s hoping the page rank feature answers our prayers!

One of Buzz’s biggest assets (and my personal favourite) is that it is already available on the Android and iPhone. It seems that since the app store fiasco that was Google Voice they are now sticking to the web as its sole platform for application distribution. According to Google this was done because not only do they want people to update their statuses on the go but to Geo-tag their location in a Foursquare nature. This then links in with plans for all mobile users to utilise Google Maps and Google Voice to ‘speak status’ updates…world domination you say?!

The most obvious downside I have come across is the one-way communication roadblock. While Google’s people did indicate that Buzz would eventually allow you to Tweet at the same time it does not currently support it. This means that you can see other peoples Tweets and comment on them within Buzz but you wont be able to Retweet them or update your own Twitter status. This means you will still have to log in separately to the wide range of social networks or rely on services such as Ping.fm to update your Buzz status along with all your other networks.

In terms of the product, for once the outcome is simple. If enough friends, family and colleagues use Buzz it could become your one-stop-shop for all things social. If not it could be back to the drawing board for Google. I have to admit, there is one thing that is bothering me a little, as much as I admire Google for their innovating and groundbreaking technologies part of me feels that they could be moving too fast? And is it good business etiquette trying to overrule existing social networks?

Thoughts and feelings welcome as always!