Google Buzz adds to the social whirl

[ktinkel]

This week Google is rolling out Buzz — its social networking add-on for Gmail. (I don’t see it on my Gmail page yet; they say it may take several days.)

They say they are focusing “on building an easy-to-use sharing experience that richly integrates photos, videos and links, and makes it easy to share publicly or privately (so you don’t have to use different tools to share with different audiences). It also supports geographic tagging. Works on phones as well as computers.

More information.

[Kelvyn]

I'm already Buzzing.... And yes, I can buzz from my phone, too. But from my phone I can also tweet, post to facebook, update my Wordpress blogs, upload video to youtube, send photos to Picassa - and probably more, except I don't have the time to do all these as I have to make some voice calls, too.

[Mike]

Originally Posted by Kelvyn

... I have to make some voice calls, too.

How dreadfully old fashioned. Do people still do that?

[Bo Aakerstrom]

Originally Posted by Mike

How dreadfully old fashioned. Do people still do that?

I have heard that some even meet each other in person when they have meetings!

[Mike]

Originally Posted by Bo Aakerstrom

I have heard that some even meet each other in person when they have meetings!

Wow!

Reminds me of of that Asimov story where people would no longer met each other or be in the same room as another person. Sometimes I think we're well on our way towards that. I often find the easiest way to talk to Audrey is by email, even when we're in the same room.

[sky4forums]

Reminds me of of that Asimov story where people would no longer met each other or be in the same room as another person.

The Naked Sun which is a sort of sequel to The Caves of Steel. Both good sci-fi murder mysteries.

[Bo Aakerstrom]

Remember reading those when I was younger, Swedish translations of course. Perhaps I should re-read them in English.

[Mike]

Originally Posted by sky4forums

The Naked Sun which is a sort of sequel to The Caves of Steel. Both good sci-fi murder mysteries.

Thanks. I knew somebody would have a better memory than me.

[terrie]

The Washington Post's Rob Pegoraro reviewed it today:

"Buzz appears more ambitious, and a tad creepier, on a mobile device."

"But Google faces some huge obstacles to building up Buzz as a nexus of everybody's social networks. Its Gmail-first requirement excludes most people online; how many of them will change e-mail services just to use this?"

"Most of all, Buzz's mobile features require placing a phenomenal amount of trust in Google: You're not only letting its computers tell you what's worth knowing on the Web, read your e-mail and keep your calendar, now you're going to let them follow you around in the real world."

"I like Google and Gmail and my next cellphone will be an Android device, but at some point it's good to log out of the Google ecosystem and give your business to somebody else -- even if that's a little messy and inefficient."

Terrie

[ktinkel]

He makes good points. I was wondering whether it would use private information — such as Google medical files — to filter your associations. Brrrr.