So, you can post automatically-geotagged status updates or links from within GMail, the Google mobile web site, and the Google Maps application for Symbian/WinMo/Android. The updates can have rich text, embedded images, threaded replies - closer to FriendFeed or Facebook than Twitter.
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.
1.The permanent link to your message has your email id in it. Don't like that very much.
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.
So they want to duplicate what Facebook does? Great for them, I suppose, but why would I as a user go to it? Any feature they add, FB can add. And FB already has the graph I want.
Easy: I don't want to check two things. I only want to check Gmail. I don't want to bother with Facebook, my online life is not Facebook-centric, it's Gmail-centric, and Facebook is merely a drag I occasionally put up with.
This, exactly. My only real concern is that my inbox could get drowned, but my cursory skim that would only be a danger if posted a lot yourself (and got a lot of replies).
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.
From the video it looks like it's a separate label, just under Inbox.
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).
It's a separate label, but replies go to your inbox (from the video, again).
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 :))
Before I left I was asked to work on several Facebook app competitors using OpenSocial -- supposedly because of "executive pressure" that was, then, based on the positive buzz around Facebook apps. I was disappointed to be so directly experiencing the Silicon Valley echo chamber.
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.
Well, they already have Google profiles. This Buzz thing just sounds like extra features on top of Google profiles. In fact, I posted on Facebook yesterday about how I was sick of it and did anyone want to join me on Google profiles. No one did, and mostly people hadn't heard of it. But I definitely see the appeal of attaching everything to my e-mail address.
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.
Attaching everything to my email address would be great if I could just change my primary gmail username. I'm a bit fed up of it now. I have secondary accounts (which are painful enough to manage in the light of Buzz etc), but I don't want to lose access to 7 years of email and contacts either. The only solution I can think of is setting up a new address and a forwarder...
My Android phone automatically syncs contact information from Facebook, so it's not like Google isn't open to that. I understand that Google's right hand doesn't always know what the left is doing, though.
They do somewhat more I think - from the brief demo video it looks like content embedding is performed much better - both in terms of UI and functionality.
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.
The "follow" model is the most broken of Google's social stuff. Most of the people I have sent or received email from are not people I want social updates from.
interesting - also business interactions take place over email and not worth a follow. I guess any non-business, frequent interaction email buddy could be worth a follow: but it should be opt in.
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.
I'd rather have one place to do all this stuff in. Having Facebook, Twitter and this seems like overkill. I guess I better hope everyone finally figures out which one they prefer :)
I'd rather have all of these things be interoperable, so I don't have to start using TheNextBigThing when everyone gets tired of Facebook.
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.
