The Internet playing field is up for grabs with a few key players vying for positioning.
Bing is gunning for Google.
Twitter is gunning for Facebook.
And Google is gunning for... well, everyone.
Google has attempted to gain market share in the social media space in the past.
Orkut never caught on in the United States, though I hear it does well in some countries.
And Google Wave is interesting, but not easily accessible for the masses.
And just when you think Google is done launching social media projects, BAM!
Here comes Google Buzz.
Integrated with GMail, Buzz is Google's finest attempt at going after the social media space.
A bit like Twitter, but more like Friendfeed, Buzz has a unique approach to friending.
It checks your GMail box to see who you send email to and who you receive it from, and makes some automatic choices and suggestions for you. Hello? Privacy concerns, anyone?
Embedded in GMail, you can begin typing away with your updates, or embed photos, videos and links.
You aren't limited to the 140 characters we are used to with Twitter. And you can have Buzz automatically post your Twitter updates to Buzz... but not the other way around.
You can also connect your Picasa, Blogger and other Google-related accounts to Buzz.
There is, however, one glaring ommission.
Facebook.
There is no Facebook integration.
With over 400 million users, why did Google leave Facebook status update integration out of the equation?
As noted in a Mashable article, GMail has about 35 million users. How can they go after Facebook's userbase without integrating basic functionality?
Buzz is definitely a cool idea and I will be playing with it some more.
As for Twitter's 18 million users, will they be wooed by Google's latest foray?
I don't think so. But my crystal ball isn't working that great these days, so I guess we'll have to wait and see.
What are your thoughts?
Frankly, I don't need any more social media to manage. I manage the facebook and twitter pages for The Anthony Robbins Foundation (still up and coming) and have a personal facebook account that i use regularly and twitter account that I never use AND a myspace account that I used in college that I have since forgotten how to use and have ignored and should probably delete.... but the invasion of privacy issues that gmail has faced in the past (altho i still love it as my email client) combined with a new wave of even more privacy issues got an eye-roll from me. Google - thanks but no thanks.
I have no idea. I just started using Google Buzz. So far, I haven't found anything to make it stand out to me.
Thanks Joel for that great update on Google Buzz, I will have to check it out to see how it plays into the whole social networking grand scheme :)
Appreciate you keeping us informed.
Thanks,
Jim Zak
Much like what Jessica said, there are already so many other social networking outlets, who wants another one to manage?
I think the question would be, how many unique users would google buzz get compared to facebook and twitter. If you have a facebook AND twitter account, will you be reaching anyone new by creating a Google Buzz account?
I think it's a bold move when the social networking market seems satiated with different sites and options, when there are clearly front runners and dozens of others that never got the same attention or traffic....then again, they are Google. I guess that simple brand fan base will get them enough people to try it out. So if it ends up actually being awesome, I'm sure we'll start hearing more about it.
Personally, I'll probably make an acct to check it out, but jump ship if its not something that I like anymore then Facebook & Twitter.
Joel,
Good post! I was surprised how quickly Google released Buzz, I logged into my Gmail account yesterday and there it was. I like it so far, it seems pretty easy to use and I like the fact that we can type in more than 140 characters.
I absolutely agreee with you that Facebook has to be integrated if Buzz is going to take off. Also, I was wondering, is Buzz available to non-Gmail users, and if Google will extend Buzz to Google Apps (Businesses)?
But so far so good. Only time will tell if Buzz will take off.
Chack Pesh,
Publisher, FreedomHabits.com
I agree with the first post about not having enough time to get on another social media flavor of the month. Yahoo has something like Buzz where it asks what you're doing and you can see your friends' updates. I decided not to enable it because frankly people probably know enough what I'm doing throughout the day, every day. With all my Tweets, that's probably more than enough from me (smile).
Janette
I see Buzz as a great enhancement to "Google Reader" which is a fantastic product. If you aren't using "Google Reader" and sharing the good stuff with your friends, you are missing out. It is a great information sharing tool.
Hi Joel,
I appreciate your post reviewing Google Buzz.
Since social media is one of your specialties, I think your assessment of it is pretty accurate.
I think that right now the space is already quite crowded and most people aren't looking for another place to maintain.
Unless it completely rocks and it's interconnected with the most popular social media or can completely replace it, I wonder if it will take a firm hold of the masses.
Vance
"What are your thoughts?"
My crystal ball's looking a little cloudy lately, too, Joel. So I'll follow your lead and play with it a while and see where it takes me!
All success
Dr.Mani
It will be very interesting... I must say I'm enjoying the functionality of Google Buzz, though. Maybe because it's so new and shiny!
I agree with Jessica. One more place to keep up with. And I did not see what you could do with it. Maybe did not look far enough. But I am not a social media person. Have been with PeopleString for a month. It pays you to use it. Just created Facebook account today, because all the training I am doing for Network Marketing says it helps create relationships with like minded folks (work at home). So I will try it. But probably will not do anything with Buzz. It created a follower for me and I had no idea what was going on. Thanks, but no thanks Google. I like my Gmail account because it hold lots of mg, where my personal local email site only holds 50mg. Can't run an autoresponder with that. Helen
I agree with the others. This will just be an added social media site to manage. The privacy issue is another thing. Unless I see anything spectacular, I probably will just check it out but not bother further.
Hi Joel.
Indeed, Google Buzz is new, flashy, might seem like it's a bit late in the game etc. But it's got us developers frothing at the mouth... Google Apps, GMail, Google Buzz - talk about a whole range of tools to use!
With so many companies moving to the cloud, a need is growing for a social networking tool that can integrate with cloud services. Now, running Google Apps and then integrating social networking via Buzz seems to be a viable alternative to some of the others.
With Facebook possibly charging (a lot in South African terms) for their service, this could just be the thing to keep that price in check. It might not be the be-all and end-all of social networking, but remember when GMail first appeared? A lot of folks wrote that off as well...
Now the big question is of course what API's will become available and how Buzz can be leveraged for business use.
Buzz up?
The privacy concerns you state are mistaken Joel. You said:
"It [Buzz] checks your GMail box to see who you send email to and who you receive it from, and makes some automatic choices and suggestions for you. Hello? Privacy concerns, anyone?"
What Google really does is checks your Gmail contacts. It does not snoop on your email and then sneakily add people to Buzz. Buzz is based on your address book. If I am in yours and you are in mine then we are mutual friends in Google's eyes. Plain and simple, no conspiracy theories here.
Facebook was not omitted either, they opted out of Google's social initiative when they excluded themselves from Google Friend Connect citing "Privacy concerns..." Privacy concerns being Facebook accepting Microsoft's $220 million investment. Google does not include Facebook because it is behind a log in by their choice. Open social sites like Twitter and FriendFeed are included because they are already public.
The real factions at war here are Microsoft and Google. The rest will all go broke on their own without investment money from the first two. Facebook has lost money for the last 6 years, hundreds of millions of dollars. Without outside investors Facebook would have gone under the first year.
In the end Google will be the sole survivor because no other social network is able to make a profit yet. Even if Facebook was sold today I doubt any money would go to anyone but the investors ($500 Mil and counting). It's the same thing that happened to Digg. The bankers will get any monies if Digg was sold and Facebook is not far behind that failed business model.
Google only needs to wait....
No crystal ball on this one. LocalAdLink touted BoomJ for the baby boomers social website and it turned out to be a pile. Lots of choices. No one is an island and Google is no exception. Many folks out there have finally figured out how to use Facebook and they don't embrace change.
TV, Internet, Normal-ness.
My wife likes it so far.
Google Buzz is cool, I like it. But I agree, it is kind of late... I will use it but I would rather go to twitter site to get updates.
I turned on Google Buzz a few days ago, and I do not like it. It clutters my "Sent mail" folder with "updates"... and I have no idea WHY. I often refer to my Sent mail, and now I have to comb through these "updates" from myself! Frustrating. I'm going to give it a little more time, since it's benefits might outweigh this drawback. But if they don't I'll be turning it off soon.
Having both FB and Twitter account is already a pain. Which explains why I'm using TweetDeck in the first place. With Buzz coming along, I think I might have too much on my plate to handle. I didn't event use Wave that often, mind you.
We're being Google-ized.
I'll be ignoring Buzz for a while and wait until I'll see the benefit of using it, and some upgrades as well, like putting FB functions in Gmail.
After all, 140 is more than enough to say what you really want to say, on FB AND Twitter.
i am a member of twitter too and Facebook and Myspace and so on...
i think Google Buzz is attractive because as a marketer you have less restrictions, if people are not interested they simply do not follow you.
so i like it very much.
Kind regards, Peter
Hello everyone,
Thanks Joel for the great article.
all Internet marketers and web technology experts uses Google services and products in a very frequent way if they don't even totally rely on Google for their business in some cases.
Google Buzz is an attempt not only to tap on the social media space but also to make those professionals even more linked to Google.
What happened for my cases is that now I am starting to pay more attention to my google profile and to my Gmail contacts.
I have a website, a twitter account, and a FaceBook account. But now everything is centralized on my Google profile and Gmail because Buzz now gives me this missing feature.
Google is trying to make its services in an all-in-one-place scheme.... And till now, it's well done!
Best regards
Just to bring a non US view: despite Facebook and Twitter's brilliant successes, there are whole user segments not yet inmersed in these 2 social networks: for example, the 40+ European group. This is clearly a space where Google could have success with Buzz, since it represents a simple incremental step.
Best regards
Not sure about Google Buzz.. I find it hard to see it vying with Twitter or Facebook. But I have been wrong before!
Until now, it does not look like Google Buzz is the Twitter-Killer. I don't use it regularly yet. Time will show it.
Joel - They made it so easy that I joined Google Buzz the day it was launched. I am looking forward to see how this new social application changes the landscape – perhaps Google Buzz will be in 2010 what Twitter was in 2009 - what do you think?
I love the idea of integrated resources and the leverage by being able to distribute content across many platforms in one action. There are a couple of privacy concerns, the one you mention here related to the "GMail integration," which I do not like and “your location” function, which I really do not like. I haven't explored Buzz enough to know how you disable these functions, although I believe your location can be turned off.
Google wasn't about to sit back and let Twitter gain mind share and even more to the point Twitter's recent favor when it comes to relevant search of immediate events such as a survivor tweeting from a plane that just landed in the Hudson River, the death of Michael Jackson reported by someone standing in front of his rented mansion, the earthquake in Hatti are just a few examples.
I agree that the lack of Facebook integration is a big miss - I wonder if that was an over site or a dream denied by our friends at FaceBook.
The social space just keeps evolving and we get all the benefits!
James
http://Twitter.com/AskJamesHolmes
I signed up and started using Google Wave but it didn't last long.
I'm sure I'll go back and give it another go, it's just that I don't log in to the gmail site all that often since they opened it up to IMAP.
I have a twitter client that does twitter just fine and doesn't require me to go to a website.
Of course there are bound to be Google Wave apps in the works.
Be interesting to see how it all turns out.
Kind Regards,
Shane