Posted on February 11th, 2010These days, every tech outfit wants to get into the social media space. It is the hottest new medium to be in since the success of services such as Twitter and Facebook. True, there were other giants in the space before like Myspace and Friendster but Twitter and Facebook made it a cool tool to use for everyone. There is no age range and both tools are popular in a variety of demographics. Now Google has seen what was going on and decided that they were going to jump on board the bandwagon. They did this by introducing a service called Google Buzz. It was released several days ago and already, there is a big commotion in the media about it. We will talk about everything that the service provides and determine will it be able to live up to all of the hype that it has received so far.
Since it is new, most people will have to be introduced to what Buzz is exactly. What the service does, is to allow you to aggregate your social media networks in your email inbox. It also allows you to make your email inbox it’s own social network as well. It will take the people from your contact list and automatically make them people that you follow. And just like Twitter and Facebook, it will let you post updates so that everyone can read them. There is talk about them adding services that will let you respond to people on other social media formats as well. This is something that can be very disruptive in the social media space.
There has been some controversy to the abilities of Google Buzz as well. There are some features that you are starting to hear a low murmur of complaints about. The number one thing that you are hearing is that some people find it difficult to use. Even the technically inclined are having trouble getting used to the interface. At least the ability to use all parts of it. Some other complaints are that people do not like that you auto follow people in your inbox and it gets displayed publicly on your Google profile. They auto follow people who you talk to the most. So if anyone wanted to know who you have conversations with on a regular basis, they would be able to find this out by just looking at your profile. This is not a good thing and should only be an opt in selection. One last complaint is that people are finding it hard to find the button to opt out of the service itself. It is there and there have been many post that show people how to do this. A quick Google search will show you. It’s there but it is not in a intuitive place.
Will Google Buzz turn out to be a game changer and worth all of the hype that it has received, maybe. But it is full of features and so far the overall response has been positive. I think this service stands a good shot of being a game changer. It is true that it has some flaws early on, but it is not enough to stop people from trying it out themselves.