Google Buzz

By Osa Collins

It really did come as a surprise to me. I don’t know about you but when I launched my Gmail the other day, I saw the question: “Want to try Buzz?” OK. It might not have been in those exact same words but really something in that line. It gave me an option to launch my Gmail with Buzz or without it.

Of course, being a tech-voracious human being, I promptly agreed to try it out. So here I am writing about my short experience and observation and questions…what more, even the opinions of others who have gone on before me.

Google rocks! No doubt. When it took the world by storm in revolutionizing search on the internet, people could not understand how they got by without it. Now the word “Google” is both a verb and a noun. After that they have launched series of ground breaking apps including the famous Google maps, Google desktop, Gmail and several others too numerous and unknown or both to mention.

This latest foray into the world of social network in the name of Buzz is not even novel for Google haven tried the waters before in Orkut, and one they abandoned in some years ago, Jaiku. However, this latest effort is new being that they came up with what I think is a brilliant idea which is to tie their version of Facebook into their Gmail. If adopted by all their gmail subscribers, it will give them a head start of 150 million users.

But is that possible? With the present state of things in the social network market, people have become so used to Facebook and are unlikely to become “unused” to it (heck, Facebook keeps working at their own!). I understand why Google would want a share of the social buzz but can they really catch on? Advertisers go where the crowd is and as people spend more time on these sites, these money bags will eventually drift there. But does that threaten Google’s money machine? Will they loose any momentum by sticking with the modus operandi instead of diving into this already cluttered area?

These and other unmentioned but equally strong questions remain to be answered. And I think only time will tell if Google is making a good deal with this latest move.

Osa Collins is a 27 year old technology watcher and commentator. He shares some of his thoughts on different new innovations on http://technewspace.blogspot.com.

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