Just in case you’re reading my blog and neither a Gmail user nor a nerd (for the record, I love my readers who are neither, you’re expanding your own and the Burgh’s horizons), Google implemented Buzz today. You can get the basics from the video above.
The big question about the implementation is why? The product seems to have extremely little value in its current form, so the answer to the “why” will likely be found in future versions. I see two potential tracks for maturing Google Buzz, but only one inevitable conclusion. First, two tracks:
- They’re hoping to aggregate other social networks and compete directly with Twitter and Facebook. This seams the most obvious scenario (though not necessarily the most likely). Since Google already has a wide array of pseudo-social tools (Picasa, YouTube, Blogger, GChat, etc…) that are integrated with Google Buzz. Integrating a few more, might make it likely that I would follow my friends on Google instead of Facebook. I might upload the images I want people to see on Google Buzz instead of Facebook. If they want to do this, the key will be getting non-GMAIL customers to log in and be active.
- They envision it as more of a social-productivity tool. If this is the route they want to go then interaction with Google Docs is the next step. I must admit it would be cool to see updates to Docs I’m working on with my classmates in the same feed as my friends’ status updates.
The inevitable conclusion: Their main hope is to prepare people for Google Wave. Get them used to the kind of interaction it entails. What makes it interesting is, watching what their next steps are (whether they follow track 1 or track 2) might give us a better view of what they envision Google Wave’s purpose being in the long run (e.g. for fun or for productivity).
