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The Buzz on Google Buzz: Not Ready for Prime Time

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Google BuzzThe early buzz on Google’s just released Buzz social networking feature from what I’m reading is not that good. From my own experience trying it out today in between sessions of snow shoveling, it looks like it is a product that wants to be something but no one knows what that is yet. Face it, Google is throwing out quite a few things lately and Buzz is another one. This feels incomplete on so many levels that talks about it being a Twitter and Facebook killer are as premature as a couple buying baby clothes before they’ve ever had a chance to hop in the sack together.

Google has also released a mobile version of Buzz which on the iPhone allows you to add to your stream with text, but not with pictures or other media. You also can’t add pictures to a comment in any version I’ve tested. Not that this is a killer. Folks have been using this hack from LifeHacker from keeping Buzz from taking over their GMail InBoxes. That’s another complaint I’m hearing a lot about, and as personal testimony until I executed the hack, it could get overwhelming if you commented on a thread. Supposedly Buzz will post your Twitter tweets, but due to API issues that feature seems broken for all practical purposes and the thought of having another place to check up on just isn’t that appealing. But then it is still early in the game.

Again, a lot is being made about this being a Twitter killer or replacement. It’s not there yet. Most folks are just beginning to figure it out. Keep in mind, when Twitter first rolled out there were many who couldn’t figure it out either. That said, I’m guessing we’ll be buzzing about Buzz for some time to come.

1 Comment

1 Comment

  1. Mike

    02/11/2010 at 6:33 am

    I have not played with it yet to see how I can filter it and set it up.
    But my two initial thought are:
    1. I don’t want it to automatically integrate with my contacts. I might e-mail somebody regularly for business or school who is not a friend and who I in no way want linked to the jokes and comments which fly back and forth between friends and myself. Maybe I can filter that (hope so) but including it in the pitch just puts me off.
    2. I don’t want all my social stuff coming into my inbox. When things get busy I don’t have time to keep up with all that stuff and don’t want it flooding into my e-mail. I want it separate. So this too immediately puts me off.
    Everybody leads lives that are compartmentalized between friends and family and work, etc.
    The need is not to automate making a big soup of it but to automate easily rigging the appropriate partitions and de-cluttering work flow.

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