Google Buzz

Okay so what is Google Buzz? A new twitter? A new Facebook? A new Friendfeed? When compared to the above it most likely resembles friend feed, but this could be so much more. With an intuitive interface for those that are used to using microblogging and facebook-style platforms – this should be easily adaptable. But the biggest question is do we really need another Microblogging platform?

What Google Buzz isn’t
Google Buzz is not just another platform but instead brings numerous platforms together to give you one more way to connect with your friends and other readership. I primarily see this being used as a business tool over a standard platform for your basic users. Google Buzz does not currently have a good platform for real social integration. That being said, I will tell you what Google Buzz is and how you can use it in your business.

What Google Buzz Is
Google Buzz is, at first glance, a great way to get your information out there as a business or blogger. Google Buzz allows you to pull in numerous platforms directly into your Buzz screen including Twitter, Flickr, Picasa, and even your blog posts. All this can be done automatically and make things very easy to store and respond to in a central location (you still have to respond to comments on your blog through your blog though).  by having a lot of this put together in one place, it makes it easy for people that are interested in what you are doing to follow you (as long as they have a GMail account) right in their GMail/Buzz screen.

My first impression
Google still has some tweaking to do on the platform, but we know the Internet giant will take advice from users, do their homework, and implement features to make it better. Early adopters will definitely go through some changes, but most will be for the better. It is definitely worth checking out but I don’t know that I would run off and create a GMail account right now if I did not already have one. The service has some growing to do but will be a useful tool for business with a potential to grab market share from other social giants as they adapt the service.

Caveat
Thinking of Spiderman here for a minute – “With great power comes great responsibility” – keep in mind that you do not want to stuff everything you do on this as it will get really burdensome for users who only check their email a few times a day. If you have numerous blogs and are posting 20 twitter messages a day this will get old to your followers. I chose to start light only feeding this blog and my rarely updated twitter account in there.  Every time an update occurs, you get a copy in your GMail – this will get old but at least it is compact. Use with caution until you get the feel for the user experience.

Update: Be careful of Google Buzz Privacy Issues