This week, Google introduced a new feature that represents its latest venture into social media, called Google Buzz. It’s essentially status updating directly through your Gmail account, and it’s Google’s attempt to embrace social media and the “real-time” web. It hasn’t rolled out to everyone one yet, but you might see it when you log into Gmail, or you can visit Google.com/buzz.
Here’s how it works…
Following People on Google Buzz
Log into your Gmail account, and you’ll now see a link on the left-hand side just below your inbox that says “Buzz.” Click on this link to get started. You’ll essentially see a very Twitter-like interface directly in Gmail that displays recent “activity” from people you follow. This “activity” is a mish-mash of activity from people directly posting into Google Buzz or activity on other Google-owned social platforms, like Picasa, YouTube and Google Reader. The view of my account is pictured below:
Posting to Google Buzz
When you post on Google Buzz, it’s essentially just like you would post to Twitter or as you’d update your Facebook status. Google Buzz allows you to post links and photos as well. In addition, Google allows you to connect other accounts, such as your YouTube, Flickr or Twitter account.
Google Buzz Profiles
One of the interesting features Google has released is what they’re calling “Buzz Profiles.” These are actually pretty interesting profile pages that Google wants to be a hub to all of your social activity. It will be indexed in Google’s search results, and I’m sure Google would like this to serve as the “bio” page when people Google individuals. You can see my Buzz profile below:
Google Buzz Mobile
Google has also taken the mobile version of Google Buzz seriously, and it can be accessed via mobile web browser. The mobile version of Google Buzz takes advantage of understanding your location, and can geotag your posts. In addition, it can utilize voice recognition to post to your buzz.
Sink or Swim?
There are a few challenges this new product faces that don’t bode well for its future success:
1. Baked into Gmail
Other forms of digital communication are slowly replacing email. Google seems to have aligned this product with Gmail purely to leverage existing connections and Gmail’s traffic. Long-term, however, it will need to be able to exist on its own beyond the walls of Gmail. Buzz profiles are an attempt at this, but they may not be enough.
2. Incomplete Integration with Twitter
Despite the fact that many are touting Buzz as a “Twitter Killer”, Google was smart to integrate Twitter updates. However, it’s an incomplete integration. Buzz can only pull in Twitter activity, you can’t push updates from Buzz to your Twitter account. This may limit the amount of usage the new service gets from Twitter users, who can more easily update multiple social accounts in one location.
3. No Facebook?
With Google Buzz, you can’t pull in your Facebook updates or updates from your friends, and you can’t post from Google Buzz directly into Facebook. With a Facebook connect integration, Google Buzz has a chance to become a social communication hub. Without a Facebook integration, the best shot it has is at a niche audience. Even a niche audience like Twitter has is unlikely, as Gmail had only around 36 million monthly unique visitors, according to the folks at Mashable.
…What About Brands?
It doesn’t appear that Google is taking any steps to clearly separate brands from people as a part of Google Buzz. If your company has a Gmail address, you could set up a Buzz Profile for it, but the structure is clearly geared towards people, not brands.
I’d recommend creating a profile for your brand simply for the search engine inclusion and link benefits. But for now, focus your updating energy on other platforms that have embraced brand presence in social media. We’d hope that in the near future, Google realizes that brands can be just as active as people.
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