The Buzz around Buzz. What is it anyway?
This week, Google released it's newest application (or is it a feature?) called Buzz. The Twitter-verse has been all a-buzz (sorry, I can't help it) about #buzz since it was announced. My initial thoughts can best be summed up by Joshua Topolsky of Engadget fame:
I finally have a way to stay connected to my friends and update them on my status!
Obviously this was said in jest, as it was hours into Buzz's short life. I mean ... at first glance it sure just looks like another Twitter. Then I look again and it looks a little Facebook-y. Then I look again and it's actuallty kinda Gmail-y. Hmmm. What is it?
So far, it seems to me like it's attempting to be Facebook more than Twitter. Let's face it (I'm telling you I'm not doing it on purpose), Facebook already has a status update thingy, but it's not publicly searchable, like Twitter.
Buzz seems to me to just be a threaded version of Twitter that allows you to easily pull other feeds into your buzz-stream for announcing to all those who follow you. It also integrates directly into Gmail which, as a regular Gmail user, is great.
Buzz does NOT replace Twitter at all. Nor does it really replace Facebook unless you lump in Gmail + Buzz + Gchat and then it's kinda/sorta close. Plus there's no apps for Buzz (although I wouldn't say that's not possible for the future) and it also requires a Google account (for now).
Will I continue to use it? I kinda have to ... it's right in my inbox!
What is Google's motivation? Well, it seems like maybe Buzz integrated into everything else may just be Google's stop-gap solution to getting everyone to Wave. Arguably one could say that the way they implemented Buzz is slightly reminiscient of Google Wave with it's integration of editing into what might normally be regular reply-to-all emails (or mailing lists) with some API's to pull in content and auto post it.
All in all ... who knows. I tend to reach a new understanding of what's going on with Buzz about every 30 seconds. I don't know where it's going, nor do I know whether I will keep using it, but for now ... it's worth trying out to see if I can make it work for me.