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Two Scoops of Buzz
Lots of Buzz buzz is still running through the internets yet, so here's a bit more of it, just in case you aren't burnt out yet. Google has added a one-button disable option to totally remove the system from Gmail. I'm sure someone there sure wishes that had been on by default. This is partially in response to a class action complaint and follows earlier cleanup efforts as well as an apology for auto-follow. Since there is no Facebook interaction, I still wonder what traction they will get. But maybe this means the end of Twitter.
Twitter's power is that you dont have to go there to use it or update it. I've got 90,000,000 twitter apps to choose from on EVERY platform. Hell even my home automation gear from crestron has twitter interoperability.
Twitter has critical mass and support on everything.. Buzz has none of that currently.
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
Not to mention there's less motivation to go to a new social network when there are existing ones already set up with many people using it. I highly doubt Google can go far here.
I read TFA and all I got was this lousy cookie
I'm guessing it would be the same thing he does every night ... fuck Demi Moore.
How was slashdot going to make money?
Advertising.
Yeah, Google didn't stand a chance against the likes of Hotmail and Yahoo Mail, their spunky little upstart 'gmail' thing took forEVER just to get out of beta! Can't say that anyone was really attracted to it, what with all the established options out there. Who will take it seriously?!!
At best, I view this as more evidence that Google isn't mature enough to be the 800 Lb gorilla of the Internet.
At worse, I see this as evidence that Google can be just as much as a monopoly threat as Microsoft was on the PC.
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And all Google has to do is create a unique Buzz email address to send updates to (like Facebook has recently done), and you get instant support on any platform capable of sending email.
When Facebook came out with the unique email address to upload images and update status, I dumped my Blackberry Facebook app and I just use email now. So at this point, switching to Buzz would be a matter of changing the email address my pictures and updates go to.
This would make new Buzz apps for platforms trivial to implement.
"This post contains words, known to the State of California to cause thought. Wash brain thoroughly after reading."
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it's 140 characters limit is great to avoid loads of bullshit. One of the greatest things of twitter is precisely that; it forces you to go to the point.
Dear
What exactly is twitter doing that couldn't be done with existing blogging sites that have email updates? Nothing says you have to write 2k words on your blog post, you could write 120 characters on any blogging site and do the same thing.
I do like the idea of pushing towards more open standards. Email is a standard everyone can agree with, everyone can interoperate with. I can send mail from my phone to someone on a mac or a pc or linux. I can swap out clients if I find one I like more. I do like the idea of transitioning these sorts of services to protocols and then you're selecting the provider you want based on how that protocol is implemented.
I see value in what Facebook does even though I dislike the way it's implemented, similar to the way I like what Exchange/Outlook is trying to do while hating everything about the way it's actually done.
There's been talk about trying to open up the silos represented by these applications. You have your data in twitter, you have your data in facebook, you have your data in google, and there's lots of duplication across each. Facebook will talk to google to import your data but that's a bit clunky and is still just putting your stuff in another silo. I like the idea of more interoperability but am also concerned about the potential for holes. I don't mind if my facebook gets hacked because there's nothing important on there, nothing personal or embarrassing. I don't put anything there I wouldn't mind seeing on the front page of the new york times. But if facebook had tight access to my gmail, suddenly a hole in facebook could become a hole in gmail. Not so good.
Kwisatz Haderach
Sell the spice to CHOAM
This Mahdi took Shaddam's Throne
Not 'closed' in that sense. Closed as in finite (in comparison to the other services where anyone with any email address can use). To be able to use buzz, one needs to sign up for another email account, something not many people will do easily.
Facebook HAS decimated Myspace though..... sooooo
Indeed. And leveraging Gmail shows they've learned that when critical mass is required, their usual method of using limited invites doesn't work. That, and Google's notoriously short attention span, is what killed Orkut.
Facebook succeeded because they built a critical mass in a target rich environment (college students) and when enough students had graduated to form a critical mass in the 'real world', they opened it up to all comers. Twitter succeeded because it melded the 'pure' version of Facebook (status updates) with the world of text messages.
For Buzz there is no obvious demographic or niche for Google to exploit, but Google has what no other 'startup' social networking site had - an existing massive base of installed users who've already shown a predilection to use their (Google's) services. That they bungled their opening moves in no way invalidates their basic strategy.
At best, I view this as more evidence that Google isn't mature enough to be the 800 Lb gorilla of the Internet.
At worse, I see this as evidence that Google can be just as much as a monopoly threat as Microsoft was on the PC.
At best, Google is making me follow the people I want to - i.e. the people I send e-mail to & chat with regularly anyway.
At worst, I click unfollow and all is right in the world.
I think people don't get the point of social networking. It doesn't work if everything is private. That's neither social nor networking.