Live Google event about Google Buzz
youtube.com
youtube.com
Update: they brilliantly integrated the product into another product millions of people are already using.
2. More like friendfeed than twitter with the ability to comment on statuses.
3. Seems like there is no character limitation.
4. Gmail loves adding people to contact list. I do not want to add the email ids of people I follow (outside my social circle) to my contact list. Not yet sure how it works in that case.
You automatically "follow" your Google Chat/GMail contacts, and you can make each post public or friends-only. You can also browse "nearby" buzz from strangers, by location.
They're saying that it will have open data / open APIs, and can aggregate your data from external services like Twitter and Flickr. They mention related standards that Google is promoting like PubSubHubbub, WebFinger, and Salmon.
But, they've been wanting to use Gmail as the center of everyone's social network for awhile. I guess this is the first step.
Also, a great deal of the appeal of Facebook, for me, is as an address book. But all the people I contact are in my GMail contacts list, and it's annoying to manually enter in things like their phone number or address. Now with Google profiles I won't have to look that stuff up on Facebook, because it should be in their Google profile.
I wonder though if we're really that representative? It reminds me a bit of friendfeed which I loved, and no-one else I knew used.
I have several friends that similarly could not care less about Facebook, but more that actually do care. To be honest, even with great integration, it will still take a critical mass of people in social groupings to actually care. And not everyone I know uses Gmail as their primary email. Although most do (which is impressive).
Agreed on the need for a critical mass, but integrating with gmail suggests that it's a bit more of a serious push for them, as opposed to say wave which looks a bit more like a "wait and see" play. I need to read more about it; I'm still waiting for a federated set of protocols to get widespread adoption, a-la http://diso-project.org/ (I have a /lot/ of links collected of similar attempts :))
Also, Google's strengths in recommendation generation may make your "status stream" more relevant and interesting than Facebook's. Time will tell on this part.
Update: They named it "Google Buzz", "A google aproach to sharing"
- the three big issues of twitter - noise, spam, and who to follow may be solved
- I wonder if it overcomes the problem of FB - one way follows - you want to follow someone you've never sent an email
Google is a fast follower now, I think. Had they planned this instead of buying Jaiku, it would've taken the DM appeal out of FB and Twitter, and slowed their growth.
-- Buzz interdependent with Gmail, with its own domain. (like with YouTube)
-- I can delete my Gmail account without losing my buzz account
-- I can link 1 or more Gmail accounts, but don't have to
-- interdependent reviews site eg Google Local, on its own domain, populated with Buzz content and vice versa.
-- third party ecosystem around Buzz
Just think if email worked like social networks; I'd have to log into hotmail to send messages to bob@hotmail.com and yahoo to send anything to sally@yahoo.com.