Saturday, February 13, 2010

Google goes on the social offensive with Buzz

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 Google is determined not to be left behind by the social-media revolution.    The company wants to take what it does best--organizing Web content by relevancy--and apply it to social media, perhaps the most disorganized segment of the Web. Google Buzz is its most ambitious attempt to do just that, marrying the Gmail Web interface with status updates and media-sharing technology in an attempt to convince the social media addicts of the world to spend more time on Google's sites than on competitors like Facebook or Twitter--generating valuable data in the process.    Google is attempting to do this by taking Gmail, one of its more popular products, and integrating Buzz directly into the Gmail interface. Users can link their Twitter, Flickr, Picasa, and Google Reader accounts to their Buzz streams to see information produced by friends on those networks, as well as updates posted directly to the Buzz stream.    Google thinks it can build a competitive advantage in social media by focusing on relevancy and ranking within a social network. But will it work?
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February 13, 2010
Google launches Buzz, a social network in Gmail

Google is determined not to be left behind by the social-media revolution.

The company wants to take what it does best--organizing Web content by relevancy--and apply it to social media, perhaps the most disorganized segment of the Web. Google Buzz is its most ambitious attempt to do just that, marrying the Gmail Web interface with status updates and media-sharing technology in an attempt to convince the social media addicts of the world to spend more time on Google's sites than on competitors like Facebook or Twitter--generating valuable data in the process.

Google is attempting to do this by taking Gmail, one of its more popular products, and integrating Buzz directly into the Gmail interface. Users can link their Twitter, Flickr, Picasa, and Google Reader accounts to their Buzz streams to see information produced by friends on those networks, as well as updates posted directly to the Buzz stream.

Google thinks it can build a competitive advantage in social media by focusing on relevancy and ranking within a social network. But will it work?


Read more

 Buzz features compared: Just the important stuff
 Rafe and Josh debate Google's Buzz
 Will people leave Facebook for Buzz? Fat chance
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