By David Neuman
When you hear the words “Google” and “Buzz” in the same sentence, it’s almost impossible not to take notice. Google’s glorified Gmail addition / Social Networking site has been the hottest discussion over the past few months. However when it comes to delivering on its promise, Google Buzz has ultimately fallen short. Even with its disappointing start, it isn’t completely a failure and shows potential for success in the near future. Below are the pros and cons related to Google Buzz.
Pros:
Ability to Easily Integrate Other Social Media Channels: If nothing else, Google Buzz at least provides an extremely easy way to connect your Blogger, Flickr, Twitter, Picasa, YouTube, and Google Reader feed. As you update these accounts, so will Google Buzz automatically. After the one minute account set up time that goes into this, it pretty much can operate on autopilot (if you choose to use Google Buzz this way). Can be an effective way to get a spike (albeit likely a small one) to your other Social Media channels.
It’s a Google Product: The fact that this is called “Google Buzz” instead of “Bob Smith’s Buzz” should mean something to you. Google is notorious for releasing new tools / products prematurely and letting their users decide the best way to improve upon them. Google Buzz is no exception. The fact that Google Buzz is pretty much brand new and that it is owned by Google should convince you enough to stick around for a bit before completely abandoning ship.
Location Specific Posts: When you post directly on Google Buzz, it will state your specific location (down to the approximate street address). At first glance, this feature might come off as pretty useless and irrelevant, but I think it will eventually impact on localized searches on the web. A few months back, Google started to alter search results based on the user’s personal preference. Google takes in account your IP location when generating these results. This way when you search for McDonalds, for example, it will show locations in your area instead of random ones nationally. It’s safe to assume that Google might take in account your Buzz location and make your posts appear within localized search results.
Real Time Results: As you’ve probably noticed, Google incorporates real-time data from various websites into their search results. Google Buzz is one website that is featured in these real-time results. Keep in mind that these real-time results often update very very frequently, so don’t expect an enormous amount of traffic from it.
Easy-to-Use Functionality: Google Buzz allows you to easily comment, like, and e-mail any post from your followers. Easier than Twitter, Facebook and pretty much all Social Media channels out there.
Cons:
Too Much “Noise”: Unless your Mashable, Google Buzz will often feel like you are talking to a brick wall. Google Buzz users seem to be a LOT more focused on building up their own personal network than actually using it to interact with each other and grow relationships. This is one of the main advantages of Twitter over Google Buzz.
Privacy Issues: I read an article today on VentureBeat that does a great job explaining the privacy issues with Google Buzz. Instead of formulating my own response, I’ll quote an excerpt from the article: “Google Buzz’s biggest error from VentureBeat’s point of view was that we use Gmail for work and keep separate accounts for our private lives. Yet Google Buzz initially attempted to publish personal networks for us based on the people we interact with for work. To see my Buzz network, you’d think I spend my life chatting with the people who auto-mail me press releases. Buzz also eagerly revealed some of VentureBeat’s insider informants as part of my personal network. That’s the kind of mistake for which an apology won’t do.”
What’s the Point: Google Buzz doesn’t offer anything entirely new to the Social Media world. Considering how Social Media has become overly saturated with hundreds of unique websites, what’s the point of focusing my efforts here considering Google Buzz’s lack of originality. Sure, this is in Beta mode and will likely change, but right now as of today I don’t see the big advantage of using Buzz over other sites. To play devil’s advocate with myself, Google did say that they were not trying to replace Twitter, but compliment it. That being said, then why would I use it for anything other than to link up my other accounts?
Followers: If you have more than 100 followers (and even maybe if you have less) you likely have been followed by people who you never met in your life. That would be all fine and good if they were people who had an interest in you and what you had to say. From what I’ve seen, the majority of people who follow Google Buzz users do it all for selfish purposes. Do you know the people on Twitter who follow hundreds of accounts per day and don’t ever interact with any of those users? That makes up 90% of Google Buzz’s users.
Increase in Spam: Although Gmail never completely prevented spam, they were a lot better at controlling it then most other ESPs. However, since I’ve been using Google Buzz I’ve noticed a significant increase in spam e-mails. I’d have to think that the two are correlated.
Final Verdict: Google Buzz has yet to show much value. That being said, it’s worth sticking with it as Google continues to tweak and improve their Social Media concept. I recommend integrating it with your blog, Twitter, and other Social Media accounts and participate it within the site every so often (commenting / liking other users posts). I wouldn’t, however, allocate your time away from Twitter, Facebook, and other Social Media channels that have proven to be effective brand building tools.
Tags: google buzz, social media
