The Buzz on Google Buzz
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Last week, Google launched Buzz for Gmail, its newest push into the social media foray. (You may have noticed the splash page introducing Buzz when you last logged into your account.) According to Mashable.com, Buzz is a “service for sharing thoughts, multimedia, and social media feeds with friends utilizing Gmail as the conduit.” The two main themes behind the launch were the “human penchant for sharing experiences and the social media phenomenon of wanting to share it in real time,” Mashable.com reported. It's the new way to communicate within Gmail.
Google’s contributions to technology have become staples in the lives of many Americans--so much so that the very term google is used as a verb. And this latest game-changing move has hit the ground running. There are already more than 160,000 Google Buzz posts and comments per hour. But why has Google Buzz taken off while its other attempts at social media have failed miserably? First and foremost it's because of its built-in user base, says Mashable.com. It’s wired right into Gmail with a tab below “Inbox.”
The key features include “auto-following; rich, fast sharing experience; public and private sharing; inbox integration; and just the good stuff,” according to Todd Jackson, the product manager for Google Buzz. It aggregates content from Web sites like Picasa, Twitter, and Flickr. For example, if you @reply someone (like on Twitter), Google will send a buzz to that person’s inbox. There’s also a “recommended” feature that shows buzzes from people you don’t follow if your friends are sharing that person’s buzz.
Mobility also plays a prominent role in this latest Google toy. It figures out where you are, and will geotag your posts. You can even click “nearby” and see the people near you who are posting to Google Buzz. Hmm, not sure if I want to know that the guy sitting next to me hasn’t showered in four days.
What’s your favorite part about Google Buzz? Are you using it instead of Facebook or Twitter? Let us know!
Photo credit: Tommyd2 / C.C. 2.0
