Google Buzz, the latest social media organizer from uber-powerful Google was introduced yesterday amid mixed feelings and doubts of its relevancy. Some argue that Buzz is a bit too dry and “uncool” for social media. Others believe Buzz has the potential to kill off Twitter. Honestly I wouldn’t know. I’m one of the few (or many) who hasn’t received access yet!
Whether you think it’s a game changer or just another way for Google to control the world, Buzz has left quite an impression on many in the geek world. To make life easier, I decided to create a Pro/Con list for 3 of the best and worst factors of Google Buzz.
Pros
1) Mobile Component- Google Buzz Mobile is the cool new app that integrates Buzz on mobile phones. Based on user activity and established contacts on gmail, Buzz mobile has the potential to compete with popular apps such as FourSquare, Gowalla, Loopt and Bright Kite. You can almost classify it as a better version of Google Latitude.
2) Recommended Buzz- One of the coolest features in Google Buzz is their recommendation feed. It allows users to get an incoming feed of what Google thinks they’d be interested in based on friends posts and feedback. The buzz feed feature is a way for Google to “turn down the noise” and deliver news/updates they believe you’d be interested in.
3) Page Rank for Status Updates- Twitter perfected the status update, but Google may have some tricks up their sleeve. For those of you who aren’t familiar with Page Rank, it’s Google’s way of ranking every website online. Now, imagine them doing that with status updates. This is essentially their goal with Buzz updates, except they’ll be ranking them by likes and comments.
Cons
1) Hurts Google’s “Simplistic” Image- Many of us fell in love with Google for its speed, clarity and accurateness. Google Buzz seems to be a complicated version of Twitter. Yes it’s conveniently placed in my gmail, but so is my email, chat, docs and calendar. Adding another module might clutter and confuse many users.
2) Combination of Orkut, Google Latitude and Wave- Each of these three social based services have yet to really take off with the general public and I don’t see how Google Buzz will be much different. Orkut, Latitude and Wave each share the same or similar service capacities as Buzz, but that really isn’t saying much.
3) Slow Down- We all agree that Google is quickly taking over the world one search at a time, but they need to slow down. Over the past year, they’ve launched phones, app stores, content management systems, communication tools and various other groundbreaking technology. But it seems like they’re trying to compete with everyone. By doing this, they are risking their brand, culture and everything they’ve done up until this point. I’m all for Google and their hunger to innovate, but by creating a product like Buzz to compete with the Twitter’s and Facebook’s of the world, they might be moving too fast.



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Google Buzz: 6 Pros and Cons…
Google was introduced yesterday amid mixed feelings and doubts of its relevancy. Some argue that Buzz is a bit too dry and “uncool” for social media. Others believe Buzz has the potential to kill off Twitter….