Have you heard the Buzz?

Yesterday Google launched Google Buzz. Buzz is essentially social networking in your email. Every Google Mail account will soon be able to use it's features, which include status updates, sharing pictures and videos, commenting on other's content, and discussion.
With Buzz, Google is trying to get into the social networking arena against the big-guns like Facebook. This is something they tried many years ago with Orkut, but that only gained popularity in Brazil and India. It also puts it directly in competition with Twitter, something Rory Cellan-Jones thinks it will be more of a threat to.

To be honest I think that Buzz is a bit of a last ditch attempt to get into social networking, after the hype of Google Wave, which seemed to dissipate as soon as it was launched. I can't really see Buzz getting a mass take-up, as Jon at Jollywise says "Hotmail has more users". Google might rule the search, but they don't rule email yet - so this won't have the take-up they would need to compete with Facebook.

I do agree with Google's outlook on the future: That everything will be online (in a cloud) and accessed through a central interface (your browser). Google would like that that interface was a Google Dashboard with all their products on. And they are on the right track with Google Docs, Google Mail leading the pack with a range of other products in support.

I think that Wave is a better vision of the future than trying to jump on the social networking bandwagon. And I think that a gradual increase in the functionality of Google Mail until it becomes Google Wave is way forward. This means that people don't have to register with a new system and they will get used to the changes as they are added. Google Mail and Wave aren't all that different in their basics at the moment anyway.

I would have suggested a more gradual move into Buzz aswell through allowing anybody with a Google account to comment on things, share things via an email, integrating a "broadcast to many" option in Google Mail. So that people end up doing all these things without thinking about using a new system.

Google are pretty good at creating and leading the way. I for one - love the way that Google Mail works in comparison to normal mail systems and I do believe that Google Wave (or something similar) will become the norm in a few years. They might have got it right with Google Buzz and my doubting voice will be silenced. Despite my belief in Google's success lying elsewhere, I will be following Google Buzz with interest.


Further reading:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2010/feb/09/google-launch-expand-social-networking

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/8506148.stm