Google today announced a new service, Google Buzz, that automatically brings social networking into Gmail and the rest of the Google-sphere. Whether or not you're big on social networking sites like Twitter or Facebook, Buzz offers a somewhat new and intriguing approach.
Buzz's Five key features:
- Automatic friends lists (friends are added automatically who you have emailed on Gmail)
- "Rich fast sharing" combines sources like Picasa and Twitter into a single feed, and it includes full-sized photo browsing
- Public and private sharing (swap between family and friends)
- Inbox integration (instead of emailing you with updates, like Facebook might, Buzz features emails that update dynamically with all Buzz thread content)
- "Recommended Buzz" puts friend-of-friend content into your stream, even if you're not acquainted. Recommendations learn over time with your feedback.
Buzz lets you share photos, video, links to web sites, and other content from all over the web with your closest contacts or with the public at large.
Apart from working directly inside Gmail, it can pull content from Twitter, from Flickr, and from various other popular social sites from across the web. Currently social services supported include:
- Flickr
- Picasa Web
- YouTube
- Blogger
- Any feed connected to your Google profile (like your blog)
When you publicly post something via Buzz, it automatically and instantaneously adds the post to your Google Profile page (which it creates for you if you haven't already created one). If you want to post privately, you can create and choose specific groups you want to share with—in what looks like an attempt to offer both the public aspects of Twitter and the private aspects of Facebook.
Buzz on Your Mobile Device
Google is also launching three different mobile products that integrate with Buzz.
First, they've integrated Buzz into the Google.com mobile homepage. The new homepage has small UI tweaks, but the big change is that the Buzz icon now appears in the upper right corner of the screen. Click on it and you can post to Buzz, but more importantly, when you click there, Buzz will find your location and turn it into a real place—not just an address, but an actual, meaningful place. (When demoing, Buzz asked the user "Are you at Google?") In normal use, it'll try placing you at wherever it thinks you are, whether it's a business, your home, a restaurant, or wherever.
A mobile Buzz webapp for Android and iPhone (available at buzz.google.com, screenshotted below) gives the user mobile-friendly version of Buzz, providing a stream of people you're following. You can also grab nearby buzz to see what people around you are saying (say you're at a concert and want to hear what people are saying about it).
Finally, Google Mobile Maps has added a new Buzz layer, which allows you to post to Buzz quickly from Google Maps. (We're doubting this will work on the iPhone soon because it would require Apple to update Google Maps, which it normally only does on OS updates, but it will likely be pushed out to other devices soon.) Like the webapp, you can post from the Maps app, it'll grab your location and snap you to a real place rather than just an address.
Google says they want Buzz to be the poster child for what it means to make a social tool that plays nice—one that has an open API, that respects the user's privacy decisions, and that doesn't lock up your data. (As opposed to some other popular social networks.)
http://www.google.com/mobile/buzz/
