Time to slip out of my working-man pants suit and slip into my blogging boxer briefs.
Google Buzz, the recently unveiled conversation tool added to Gmail, has had its fair share of coverage in the last week, both positive and negative. Not a company to shy away from controversy, Google has been quick to patch privacy concerns. Seeing as how I just started a new job this week, I’ve had Gmail idling on my second work computer, giving me a chance to play around with Google Buzz. First, here’s is the obligatory explanation video from Google:
So, here’s my story.
I hopped over to the Google Buzz tab when it was first available, to see that I was auto-following a healthy group of people, all of them friends from my inner circle. I don’t have any crazy stalker ex-boyfriends saved in my contacts list, so the auto-follow feature was a convenience for me. I didn’t see much, pretty sure I was one of the first of my buzz network to be in the tab.
I looked down at my feed, and only one person had anything up there, something he had linked from his Twitter feed. I spent a little while looking around for how to sync my Twitter account. Google probably should have went with a more visible button for that (hint: it is the “# connected sites” near the top of the page). I linked up my Google Reader and Twitter account, then promptly forgot about Google Buzz for a while.
Fast-forward to after work that day. A few more people joined Buzz, so I followed them back. One thing I noticed pretty quickly is that my Twitter feed was overwhelming my Buzz feed. For the courtesy of others, I unlinked my Twitter account, at least for now. No sense in scaring people away from Buzz with my inane tweets about toe fungus.
Over the last few days, I’ve been posting Google Reader posts to Buzz, commenting on other folks, and tossing the occasional ‘like’ out there. So far most of my network has been pretty quiet on Google Buzz, but I do have some insights to offer.
So what good will Google Buzz be?
It looks like Buzz is going to end up being a more personal conversational tool. You aren’t going to get that feeling of ‘global community’ like on Twitter or MySpace, Google Buzz is far more localized, even moreso than Facebook. By focusing access to those you (theoretically) email/contact on a regular basis, Google Buzz isn’t really a “social networking” utility. As always, it all comes down to how the userbase pokes and prods Google Buzz into working for them.
As shown in the demo video, family networks are a strong possibility. Being able to link Flickr, Picasa and Youtube accounts to your Buzz stream means easily sharing precious family moments with grandparents living on the other side of the country (because so many Google Buzz users are old folks…)
A closer, more localized network akin to Facebook is possible. Obviously my close friends are all on Facebook, but so are a bazillion other people. My Gmail Contacts list is a lot smaller than my Facebook friends list, creating a more intimate setting.
What Google Buzz isn’t.
I am definitely not feeling it as a useful product marketing tool. Mashable has put Google Buzz to use for this, as seen here. All I really see this doing is driving a spike between where people offer their comments. Mashable comments are now split between those posted on the story page, Twitter, Google Buzz, Facebook (?) and who knows where else. A recent post about the Windows Mobile OS update has 108 comments on Google Buzz and 48 on the article itself.
How can Google Buzz interface with blog commenting? Is that even a good idea? It is a mystery.
In conclusion…
I like Google Buzz. Like most networking-based utilities on the web, success or failure all comes down to whether people adapt and make it part of their routine. I’m excited to use Buzz, but if none of my contacts do, I’m not going to go out of my way to network with strangers just to listen to chatter on a new medium.
Related Reading
