Hands on with google Buzz

Google lobbed a salvo at Facebook on Tuesday, adding Google Buzz, a new social networking capability to its popular Gmail Web e-mail service. Though Google Buzz is somewhat integrated with Twitter, along with a few other services – Flickr and Picasa, most notably – there's no integration with the social network of record, Facebook. And that's a hole Google will have to fill.

For now, Google is rolling the Buzz service out to all its users over the next few days, so sit tight if you don't have it yet. Check buzz.google.com to see if your account is activated. In the meantime, PCMag put the new service through its paces.

Once Google activates Buzz on your account, your Gmail will have a new Buzz icon right below the Inbox on the left panel. The icon is labeled as you might expect – "Buzz" – and sports the new social network's colorful Chrome-like logo. Alternatively, you may get a full welcome page when you log in, touting the new feature. You can either try it out or ignore it and go to your regular Gmail inbox.

Social networking with Google Buzz
The first time you enter your Buzz-enhanced Gmail inbox, you'll see the contacts Google has found for you. Alas, I only had one at first, my boss. Most users will likely see more proposed contacts, since I was using an account I use for testing rather than a personal one (I've stuck with Yahoo Mail for my personal email.)

Next, I got a chance to follow other users. Who better to follow than Google's Sergey Brin, and the product's manager, Todd Jackson. Like Twitter, and unlike Facebook, Google Buzz lets you follow anyone you want and view their public posts. This is one aspect I really like about Buzz, and one that takes something good from both Facebook and Twitter: its ability to create a public, Twitter-like feed, and a private one like Facebook for folks you really know.

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Once I have my account and my contacts, it's time for posting. The options aren't as fleshed out as those in Facebook, but they are richer than a Twitter post, which isn't surprising. I pasted a couple thousand characters into the posting area (a text box), so there didn't seem to be any limit on the length of a text post. My absurdly long status update showed as a single line with an "expand" link. There's also a collapse link.

Posting with Google Buzz
Choosing whether to post to your private social network instead of the public at large is a simple matter of clicking the big, obvious "Private/Public" dropdown right next to the "Post" button. Facebook has just added an option to post to "Everyone on the Internet"; most people expect that only mutually approved Friends will see their updates. Twitter is what people associate with public announcements anyone on the Internet can see. In fact, it gets annoying when tweeters you've followed to learn from their expertise engage in personal back-and-forths; in Facebook it's expected. Buzz is trying to offer a two-in-one service – private and public.

The only post options aside from text at this point are "Link," and "Photo". I was disappointed to find that inserting a YouTube link didn't add the video to the post, but rather just an image of the video. On another try, I did get a video entry with a play button, but a notice said embedding was disabled. But the third try was the charm; I saw the embedded video.

After you post, you have a few choices from a right-hand menu: you can edit your post, delete it, or email it. You can also create a link to it, which actually creates a standalone Web page for the post—neat! Another choice is Mute, which shows up whether you or someone else is the creator of the post. Hitting this makes the post slowly disappear from view. Other choices for posts not from yourself are "view all buzz from [User name]", "follow," and "report abuse".

Others can comment on your post and, just as in Facebook, "Like" it. The comment interface is pleasing, and somewhat reminiscent of Google Wave (as is the "mute" option) without all the confusion. The service hides some comments, showing a link such as "2 more comments" so that the post doesn't take up too much space.

Anyone who views a post can also e-mail it using a full Web e-mail editor rather than the simple no-editing option we're used to seeing on web sites' "e-mail this" options. This editor includes fonts, attachments, and all the rest. It's like Gmail within Buzz, within Gmail.

Connecting your Buzz stream to other Internet services is limited to just a choice of five at this point: Picasa Web Albums, Google Reader for RSS feeds, Google Chat status, Flickr, and Twitter. And the Twitter integration is one-way: You can only funnel your tweets into buzz, not the other way around. Rivals, such as Yahoo, have already pointed out the weaknesses of Google Buzz.

Can Buzz beat Facebook or Twitter?
One of the key advantages Google claims with Google Buzz will take more time for a full appraisal: its ability to filter out the noise. I'll only be able to guage that after months of use and quite a few more follows. At this point, I'm afraid I don't see that the Buzz page is any less cluttered than Facebook, which also lets you hide posts that don't interest you.

It's certainly a good implementation, with a few advantages over Facebook. But that may not matter. Facebook has the audience, to the tune of a half billion users; no matter how nice a Facebook clone you make, people will likely stay on Facebook. Sure, lots of people use Gmail, but not for social networking. Microsoft and Yahoo have both incorporated social status updates to their very popular webmail services, but that hasn't pulled people off Facebook and onto their social systems. Buzz has a long way to go to catch up with Facebook, not only in user numbers, but in hot applications (Google says there will be an open API), and things like groups and fan sites.

Still, this time Google has unveiled a much stronger social offering than its previous attempts, which include Orkut and Jaiku. Facebook might be invulnerable, but Buzz may just lure away the Twitterati, who may be wearying of their service's limitations and frequent outages. After that, the masses may follow. At least now they'll have a choice between Web powerhouses. (PCMag - Michael Muchmore)