Google on Wednesday unveiled their Google Buzz platform, which is the search engine giant's newest foray into the social media side of things.
Bradley Horowitz, Google’s vice president for product management introduced the product along with Todd Jackson, the product manager for Google Buzz. According to Jackson, Buzz is 'a new way to communicate within Gmail', and said that it has five major features - Auto-following, Rich, fast sharing experience, Public and private sharing, Inbox integration, and 'Just the good stuff'. It cannot be denied that Buzz is an amalgamation of Google Wave, Twitter, Facebook and Friendfeed. Like in Twitter @replies are supported.
Like in Facebook your posts can be assigned public and private settings. Also, like in Facebook an Email will be sent to you when a comment is posted on your post. Expectedly, comments are updateed in real time. But here's the interesting part - when someone comments on your post in Facebook, an Email which is sent to you shows the comment, while in Buzz the email directs you to the Buzz that you have created along with the new comments.
Google Buzz provides links to websites, content from around the web like Picasa, Twitter, Flickr etc. Thumbnails of pics are also shown automatically. Google Buzz can be used with Gmail, you will find a tab right under the inbox, labeled 'Buzz'. Keyboard shortcuts are the same as the ones in Gmail. Also, Google Buzz can be accessed via mobiles. Moreover, Buzz locates where you are, and sends you your own location, and even asks you if its right. Using mobiles you can use Buzz while talking, as it supports voice recognition.
It remains to be seen if Google Buzz can truly dethrone Twitter and Facebook, its too much to hope for, but considering Google's stranglehold on the market and its funds, the thought doesn't seem that far fetched. Google Buzz, like Wave is expanding via invites.
No comments:
Post a Comment