Google Buzz could very well be the next big thing, or the next, and failed, Windows Live Space…
Variety of flavours for sharing
The amount of tools which could be used with Buzz, which are more than obviously targeted for marketing, surprised me. Google had a list of all the blog
Google automatically dug up a few things through information that I have [apparently willingly] supplied to them at some point in time. My chat status, Picasa account, and my Google Reader shared items are a given, but my old blog, my Youtube account, my blogger account, both aliases of my website… these were things I didn’t expect Google to say: “Oh, and you might want to add…”
This post is relatively special, so I am going to include photos!
By zylstra555 at 2010-02-13
I never liked the way Google stretched my picture
By this, I mean that I never really liked any attempt at past creations of social networking by Google, from Groups to Web Tools (for online community development). Right idea, wrong approach? My hopes are that Google may come up with a service that I find easy enough to use, and with enough features to make it worth my while — let us move past this whole idea of being able to basically share the equivalent of emails publicly so that other people can make dumb comments about something you said — make this a useful utility that I will use on a daily basis that will help me to accomplish tasks.
I really hate Twitter
I hate Twitter so much, I only use it as a marketing tool to get more link backs to my website. I don’t even touch the thing, and it’s API sucks so much that it almost causes Apache to crash due to scripting problems each time I let my blog post to my Twitter account for me. Google Buzz almost seems like it may be the next thing in Micro Blogging.
Down to the basics, so far
What features does Google Buzz have?
I was surprised that they released Buzz in such an early stage of its’ development. Currently, it allows you to make public comments. It’s tied to your Picasa account, so I guess it’s already got some form of photosharing. It’s tied into your blogs, so it’s got that whole thing covered. I think Google is just trying to tie its’ features together into one big idea, but not one big service.
When I log into Gmail and click Buzz, I see this:
A screen reminding me that I can include my public tweets, Picasa photo albums, and Flickr photos.
Below that, it shows me that there are three people following me, provides a link to find people, and below that it has my last “Tweet” from my blog, a comment from a friend of mine, a reply to that comment, an excerpt (made by my blog software) of an article… you get the idea.
It’s nothing unusual. I think this is a strategy to prevent people from getting overwhelmed by this “brand new” thing in their email, and that features will be added overtime, much like other social networking websites.
I have to agree with, "I think Google is just trying to tie its’ features together into one big idea, but not one big service." I am certainly underwhelmed with Buzz. Like you I'm hoping it us just at a very early stage of development.
I believe gmail did not catch on fast as it initially came across as feature-bland. But then their whole UI strategy has from the get-go been KISS based, hiding the bells and whistles from the uninitiated, but available for the savvy.