Agora Media Group Innovation Blog

Google Buzz is “a Google approach to sharing.”

Google is making an interesting move which is two-folded.
At the one hand, it’s trying to enter the social networking business, on the other hand it’s trying to do what it’s overaching goal is: organizing information, in this case, social information.
Google’s trying to get a grasp on Facebook and Twitter. Especially Facebook is unstoppable in its advance in monthy traffic.

What Buzz does is incorporating social tools in Gmail.
It has five features:

• Users can auto-follow people which he/she is frequently communicating with, be it email or chat.
• Sharing becomes much easier, the user will be able to share content from Flickr, Youtube and so on.
• A recommendation service where Buzz will help you find popular content.
• The user will get social updates.
• The user will be able to update his/her status, be it to the public or private.

Some features do look alike the ones which are available on Facebook and Twitter. Gmail is a perfect platform to deploy these social tools, a huge userbase of 170+ million, which will return Google lots of intel, on usage, functionality, usability etc.

One of my last articles, The Synaptic Web and the Flux of Information, referred to search and filtering and why filtering is becoming the mechanism in this highly communicative digital society.
Google Buzz will create Google’s own real-time stream of information, how will Google manage the flow for the user, in terms of keeping an overview and not being overloaded?
Yet another tool is not adding more simplicity to the overcrowded landscape. Looking forward how and if Google is able to convince its users to go for Google Buzz.

What are your initial thoughts?