Although I consider myself a gadget-happy person, I tend to be skeptical, especially about something that comes from one of the giant companies. Yet, today I am buzzed about Google’s latest contribution. I think this one is going to stick for a while.
Google Buzz is not a new thing. There is nothing original about social networks anymore, or about sharing content. I guess some of that is due to Google’s previous offerings like Picasa or Reader, but mostly it was all done before by Facebook, Twitter, and others. What’s special about Buzz is that it takes the good things from all of those, puts them together in one place, and makes it better.
The fact that the one place is within Gmail makes it easy to get to and accessible. This is also a disadvantage, because it sends way too many messages into Gmail that are being picked up by external mail clients like Thunderbird. However, people are quick when it comes to finding solutions, and when I buzzed out a question I promptly received a comment from a friend with a link to instructions that solved that problem.
When first looking on the Buzz page, it gives an association of Twitter with its rectangular boxes and short messages. But unlike Twitter, Buzz does not limit the writer to 140 characters, allows additional content without the need to use annoying short links and throws in some additional functionality. That functionality is somewhat reminiscent of Facebook. It has the ability to add content (though currently limited to seven specific services, including Twitter), and comment on other people’s messages. These are all the good things in Facebook without the addition of an overloaded site with too many useless applications and too much information that only becomes slower and more buggy with every new version they release. There are also a couple more features that I liked and didn’t see in any of the other networks – updated buzzes jump to the top and are easy to find, and new content is highlighted by a colour strip.
The main criticism I read so far about Buzz is concerned with privacy (though I can’t find the link to it at the moment). Yes, Google do know about me a lot more than I probably wish them to, but this is now a fact of life. And yes, I do worry about what will happen if all that information will fall into the wrong hands. However, considering the fact that Google are providing so many useful tools, and the only payment they ask is that I will sometimes see a well directed advertisement, I think this is something I can live with. Specifically for Buzz, I believe that this time Google are doing a much better job than any of the others when it comes to privacy. The privacy settings for each connected application and each Buzz enables the selection of exactly who you want to share your information with, which is more than can be said about Twitter. The down side of this is that I had to review and reorganize hundreds of contacts in my Gmail contacts list in order to make sure that the security works the way I want it to, but at least I got rid of some irrelevant addresses and duplicates and reduced my list by about 50%.
Another complaint is about the noise -too many social networks and too many messages. This is a matter of taste, there are some that enjoy that noise, and others that can use that little link at the bottom of the inbox that says “turn off buzz”. I have a feeling that the other noise will be turned off long before Buzz.
