Google launched Buzz last week: Buzz is an update/photo/video sharing service. Buzz is integrated in your Gmail and allows you to go beyond status messages. With Buzz you can start conversations about the things you find interesting.
Whatever that means, it seems that it is another way to share yours ideas with family/friends/strangers. You have the choice to go public or to stay private.
The force of Google is the integration of Buzz into Gmail. In no time, Google was able to take this product from zero users to millions. Buzz can be if successful, a real competitor for twitter or facebook.
Why Buzz?
The important part of Buzz may not be what we think it brings to us but what it brings to Google. Google as a search engine has to…search… for information. Google visits the entire Internet data to look what is published and classifies it. Searching takes time. Google cannot instantly search every sites every second and rank it.
With Buzz, Google is getting information from millions of users without looking for it. Buzz can bring to Google real time search results.
Is that what is really behind Goggle’s mind instead of taking social media seriously?
Buzz offers features that twitter or facebook lack but need desperately. If Buzz succeeds, it will be the spine between users and Google. And Google will certainly use this user’s data to find and propose new trends or recommendations to the user.
Thougths:
At first glance, Buzz is very confusing and it seems unsettling to get strangers following you. I guess once you email someone or because they email you they become “friends” (auto-friend feature). Already twitter and facebook were bringing a new definition to “friendship”.
The page design is also confusing; to much feed kills the feed especially if one of your most popular friends starts a conversation that brings a lot of answers. This hides the rest of your feed.
The profile’s URL is quiet complicated. http://google.com/profiles/piratec is too long. Why not use http://google.com/piratec (like twitter and facebook) or redirect this shorter URL to the profile.
I also noticed that if you forget to type the “s” in the word “profiles” in the URL you will get an error message.
I think that needs a little correction.
Conclusion:
Are real people using Buzz? So fare It is seems that I'm the only one in my family/friends using it. I am not sure how useful people will find it in real life.
