When Google launched Google Buzz last week, we at S2EO had immediate concerns. Adding a status message to your e-mail account doesn't seem like much, but when you consider the hundreds of people that you've ever sent an e-mail to, do you really want all of them seeing your status?
In the past few days, Buzz has gotten some privacy tweaks, which we do like. Instead of automatically following, it now auto-suggests users, those people who you often e-mail. It also previously automatically connected Gmail user's Google Reader and Picasa accounts -- a huge no-no in our minds. There are a surprising number of people out there with anonymous blogs, and their Google Reader accounts (a listing of all of the blogs they follow) could easily out them. Thankfully, Google has decided to stop any auto-connecting.
But Mashable is now proclaiming that Google Buzz has completely changed the game. Really? They say Google Buzz is bigger than Twitter. Well, we say not so fast. Yes, you can argue that Google Buzz has more users, but that's because Buzz is automatically added to Gmail user's accounts. But are those people actually using it? A few members of the S2EO staff have it, and few, if any, are actually using it. One S2EO staff member reports no buzz by any of her followers, and the buzz she's seen from others is all just them linking their Twitter, Flickr, etc accounts. No one's actually posting any Buzz.
Mashable warns us: "To ignore Buzz would be a costly mistake, because Google has finally created the definition of a game-changer."
A bold statement to be sure, and they certainly could be right. We'll wait and revisit Buzz at a later date, but considering the numerous pots that Google has its fingers in -- and those that are surprisingly floundering (like the increasingly-error prone Chrome, or the disappearing Wave) -- we're currently remaining cautious on this one, because we have yet to see the advantage from a business standpoint.
Are we wrong? Are you buzzing and loving it? Let us know in the comments.
Me and some of my friends are "following" each other on Google Buzz, but no one is actually doing anything... at least not yet. The problem for me is that if I want to talk to my friends to get a quick update, I can just g-chat them. And since we're all already on other social networks, we use those for posting our status updates, news updates, photos, etc. Maybe as more people join Google Buzz it will seem redundant to continue to have multiple accounts on various social networks, and Google Buzz could very well top them all since it combines features of all of them. But as of right now, I'm sticking with g-mail for my e-mail and Facebook and Twitter for social media.
ReplyDeleteI feel like people come to check out my status on FB or other places, and Google Buzz pushes my statuses into people's faces. More of the push rather than the pull aspect of communication. That makes me a bit uncomfortable.
ReplyDeleteThis is what we are seeing a lot of as well -- people will have several followers, but the Buzz remains empty.
ReplyDeleteYou bring up the exact issue we see -- unless it becomes huge and everyone starts using it all the time, people are just going to go to Facebook to get all of their info, instead of looking at Buzz.
In addition, in the grand scheme of things, not that many people have Gmail. As of Aug 2009, Yahoo has 100+ million users, Hotmail has 47 million, and Gmail just edged past AOL, both with about 36 million.
I have and like my Gmail account, but is someone established in a Yahoo account going to switch to Gmail just for Buzz? We don't see it.