Google Buzz

As most of you probably noticed in your Gmail Inbox, today Google launched its new product Google buzz. Actually when I first read the details about the announcement yesterday, I was skeptical and thought this might be just another unsuccessful attempt from Google in the Social Web space. Today after using the product I changed my mind.

First of all in the short term I don't believe that it will be a twitter or a facebook killer. However I believe that it will give Google the boost to catch up with the other players in the Social Web. Therefore from a user standpoint why I liked the service:

First it is so easy to use and reachable in my Gmail which I check so frequently every day. Second it aggregates all the information from other social services, I felt the same way when I started using Google Reader. Third According to people that I e-mailed frequently, I already have followers and the people that I follow. (For some this might be annoying, though). Fourth as an android user and I really liked how it is integrated within the software especially with Google Maps. In geo-location services traditional approach was to update your location when you use the Social Web Service. Now with android Google maps, you update your status when you use the Google Maps service. This might seem a minor difference but this approach might help Google to succeed in location based social web business.

For some of the people the things that I listed above might not be a reason to use Google buzz and even for some they might be annoying features but as I previously said undoubtedly it will create its own niche and user base which allow Google to have market share growth in this area and will be a steppingstone for future developments.

Ugur Bozkurt