Google Buzz was launched last week. Those without a Gmail account may not even know it exists. After a week of using it here are my initial impressions and opinions of what it is now and what I would like to see it become:
What it is:
- A social networking arena built into the Gmail interface, you can access it through your Google profile as well (profile creation is required upon initial setup)
What it does well:
- Ties well to Twitter, Picasa, FlickR, Blogspot, and custom URL’s of your choosing
- Integrates “Buzzes” into conversations ILO @ this @ that Twitter style communication
- Connects instantly with your Gmail contacts creating an instant friend network
- Geotags “buzzes” made from mobile devices (have experienced this first hand)
What it does less than well:
- Allow you to search for people by business, school, or area (location), like Facebook does
- Some pieces of privacy could still be an issue (Initial setup per post is Public, IMO should default to Private)*
*To Googles defense they jumped quickly and fixed a few of their initial privacy issues that were being voiced loudly by critics and fans alike. This is very promising to see that they are on top of what the community wants from the service.
My network is small and it will be that way until I can find a way to connect with my actual friends, ie: Facebook, not just random friends, ie: Twitter. I am not the person that will ever get my news info from a social site which is why my Twitter account is just a place that recieves feeds from my blog posts. I may take the time to search for some of my actual friends on Buzz and see if I can find them. I would love to start using some of the sharing features like the Picasa web album sharing, however I don’t want to share them with the world. In the infant stages of Buzz I see a lot of promise. The interface is clean and fairly easy to use with a slight learning curve. I would love for this to become more of a personal connection site than a business connection site. I am growing tired of the changes to Facebook and all the apps that come with it.
Just my $.03
If you are using it what do you think about it?
Popularity: 1% [?]
Google Buzz: A game changer, or just another minor league player?


First off let me say to anyone who knows me even slightly well, yes it even came as a surprise to me that I can read. Having read through a total of 1.5 books since the age of 17 I wasn’t sure how this was going to go. Luckily reading a book is not much different than reading online news, status updates, or picture captions from men’s interest magazines, all of which I do frequently.
