Google Buzz
There has been a lot of buzz around Google recently, what with their first ever TV commercial during the Super Bowl (which was actually really good), introducing the email-killer Google Wave to limited beta release a few months ago, and now literally pushing out buzz – Google Buzz, a social media plugin for Gmail. You do have Gmail, don’t you?
First, have a look at the commercial, entitled Parisian Love, which is actually part of a series of commercials called “Search Stories”:
The commercial is simple and effective, just like all of Google’s products. Buzz is another application in the seemingly endless line of superior products that Google has created. Think of Buzz as sort of a blend of Wave, Twitter, and Plurk. It lets you post status updates like Twitter, videos and photos like Plurk, and integrates with your current contacts seamlessly like Wave. It plugs in directly below your Gmail inbox without any setup whatsoever, since it automatically sets you as a follower of people you chat/email the most. Your Google Reader shared items, Picasa albums, and Google Chat status message are all automatically posted to your Google Buzz feed.
Personally, I probably won’t use Google Buzz, as I don’t use any of the other three services I mentioned. However, I can see a lot of people really getting into this, and if you’re the type to update your status and share things on the web with your friends/followers, Google Buzz is probably your best bet since it consolidates everything into your Gmail inbox. What, you don’t have Gmail? That’s a whole other topic…
