A couple of days ago Google announced their new product – Google Buzz. Seemingly another attempt to conquer social networking (they have had some success with a service called Orkut but only really in India and Brazil.. and no, I’ve never really heard of it either) I thought I’d note down my thoughts on the service, specifically what needs to be improved.
So what is Buzz? The best way to describe it is probably to get you to imagine what the offspring of Facebook and Twitter would look like. Now, once you’re over trying to imagine two websites mating (I tried, it just doesn’t work!) try to imagine the status part of Facebook being much more prominent, like Twitter’s is. There’s no word limit that I’ve noticed, the rest works more like Facebook with the ability to like peoples comments as well as being able to share pictures and videos. You also have the choice to Buzz privately (like Facebook) or publicly (like Twitter).
Buzz’s greatest strength is the fact that it’s included into Gmail, something many people leave open all the time. This immediately plugs many people into the Buzz ecosystem so you won’t have to wait years for people to adopt it. You’re automatically following anyone you’ve ever sent an email too (Google is watching you!) and vice-versa. However if you’re anything like me remarkably few of your friends will have Google accounts. When trying this out I found that I was buzzing to an empty room, it’s nothing like Facebook which has pretty much all of my friends.
It can also pull in status from other sites, the most notable of which is Twitter, but it doesn’t link with Facebook. Hopefully Facebook support will be added soon, I’d love to be able to check all three in one place, unification is key people! [EDIT: That thought seconded by Euan!]
So far so good, then, however some functionality has been missed leaving me feel exceptionally teased! Even if (for whatever reason) they never support Facebook, being able to view tweets and buzzs in the same place is fantastic. But you can’t tweet from Google Buzz! It’s a complete deal breaker for me, what’s the point in being able to read but not write. If I ever want to reply to anything I’m going to have to sign-in anyway… I may as well not read the tweets in Buzz to being with.
It’s really difficult for a new social network to start-up in a niche which is already sewn up. Who wants to use a service which doesn’t reach as many people as their current one? The only way I believe Google can succeed with this product is to fully integrate Twitter. Then I’d happily use their interface which combines the two, all from within Gmail which admittedly is fantastic. This would allow a year or two for more people to start using Buzz, giving them a chance to take over from Twitter. Then if they could also add in Facebook support I think they’d be onto a real winner.
What are your thoughts? Getting fed up of signing up for new ideas and reaching an ever diminishing number of friends, or do you think Buzz is different enough to make it on its own? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.
