Google Buzz Arrives with a Bang

Google Buzz Arrives with a Bang

Samir Makwana, Feb 10, 2010 1545 hrs IST

Makes sharing, commenting and getting updates in real-time easier on PC, mobile phones

Buzz on the Mobile:
Google has brought Buzz for mobile in two ways - as a web app and as a layer for Google Maps for mobile. It is currently available for iPhone OS and Android OS based cellphone owners. Not only that, Buzz also brings support for voice shortcut in quick search widget that will allow posting a buzz by simply speaking - post buzz and then follows the text. Phones with Android 2.0 or higher version would be able to avail buzz.google.com and the voice shortcuts.

The Buzz web app will appear like Gmail for iPhone and Android phones that will offer drop down menu options of creating and viewing new updates. Users can set their location for both iPhone and Android to view the posts and updates from the users located close to them. Furthermore, from the nearby locations, user can narrow down to a specific location.

Buzz is also available as Layer on Google Maps for Mobile to Symbian S60 and Windows Mobile users along with iPhone and Android users. Note that Symbian S60 users will have to download the Google Maps for Mobile v4.0.0 (1.5MB) to get the Buzz Layer. Users can post a buzz in the form of text with unlimited characters and also attach photos to that buzz. Pressing the # key shows up a Buzz list of the users who recently posted a buzz.

Check out the video about how Buzz works on mobile phones.

Buzz vs Twitter, Facebook, Foursquare et al
Until yesterday, Google was rumored to introduce Twitter and Facebook rival but we think Google Buzz is just not there yet. Take it clearly from us - Buzz is not going to replace Twitter or Foursquare. We say this for one simple reason that these are simple-to-use services. Also, Buzz itself allows pulling Twitter updates so the existence of Twitter is imminent. On the other hand, Buzz, though touted as easy-to-use, involves several blocks to figure out how it works. Can you recollect the nightmare the average user had to go through to figure out how Google Wave works? We aren't considering tech enthusiasts and geeks in here but the rest of the people had a tough time with Google Wave.

Yahoo had also announced a similar service called the Yahoo Meme, which is hardly being talked about. Also, there wasn't any noteworthy rise in the number of Yahoo Mail users when social features were integrated in its mail service. For that matter, even Hotmail has Buzz-like community/status update sharing features. But for Google, people are likely to create a free Gmail account just when Buzz is available for all. Still, Google is a late entrant to real-time social network scene. Had the Buzz started couple of years ago, it would've grown big by now.

It's just the Beginning:
Heavy Google Reader users may get a faint idea of what exactly Buzz can do and how it is to be used; for the simple reason that even Buzz has Facebook's impression giving Like, Unlike and Comment options which are self explanatory. Google already has OpenSocial for building social apps and Orkut as its social product.. Google has even launched Google Wave but many people, not surprisingly, have no clue about how it works.

At this moment, there's no flag from Google to combine Buzz with Wave and create a unique 'collaborative conversation' streams that get updated in real-time. However, Google does aim to make Buzz available to business and education sector through Google apps. This will feature of organization limited sharing. Hence, it's just the beginning and more is yet to come.

Buzz is about sharing updates and multimedia in the form of photos and videos but along with it come browser compatibility issues. We believe that Google Chrome would be the most stable of all since it's Google's own product and may cause some issues leading to browser updates. Since it will house in Gmail itself, it might turn out to be a distraction to Gmail semi-Ninjas instead bridging a social gap between user and contacts.

Location sharing is yet another feature users need to be aware of and careful at the same time. For instance, they can set their location as private if they don't wish to share it or state a landmark instead of sharing exact co-ordinates via Google Maps on Mobile. Again, one must note that Google has played it smart by creating a web app for Buzz instead of an app for Apple's App Store. This was done considering the recent cold war between both Apple and Google.

Regarding Google Buzz, rivals Yahoo and Microsoft sure had something to say. Yahoo sent an update to reporters mentioning about Yahoo Updates which is quite similar to Google Buzz. On the other hand, Microsoft had issued a statement immediately after Buzz was launched:

"Busy people don't want another social network, what they want is the convenience of aggregation,"
Microsoft said. "We've done that. Hotmail customers have benefited from Microsoft working with Flickr, Facebook, Twitter and 75 other partners since 2008," it added.

In short, Yahoo and Microsoft intend to state indirectly - been there, done that. However, it would be interesting to see how Google takes it further. Let's not start comparing Apples with Oranges.