It all started when @shadez tweeted that Buzz could be accessed via Google Maps for Symbian.
I wasn’t too clear about what I could do with it, especially with the whole app working very slowly.
So while I was waiting to meet a friend I was trying out Buzz on Maps. Here are the preliminary tweets:
First look at Buzz. Great for clusters of UGC. Linked images/media w/ text. Geotagged. On google. Hence powers local search. looks 2 be #win
And when I activate the #buzz layer on maps for mobile, it’s a mobile wikimapia. With a lot more UGC
the way i see it, if buzz remains light, and google executes it well (unlike wave) this will be great. Add goggles to the mix and its #win
So then I got down to do some more experimentation. And found out the following.
Buzz is a public feed. This means that I can locate other people’s updates on the map with location.
This screen shot tells me about where some random person is and what he’s “buzzing” about. Now integration with google, and the fact that this is a public feed means that it will show up in google search pretty soon. So this person is talking about food at a particular place (that an unfortunate event happened here is completely coincidental)
Similarly, this “buzz” below tells me about a tourist destination:
Like it happened with me and @ekalavyab when I was checking my location on the map and he happened to buzz that he was at ESquare. Makes for an interesting LBS app. In some ways, I would think it better than a foursquare.
At a glance, I can discover a lot of information:
By hovering over any of these I can see a lot of information. Added to that, I could drill down to what people in my vicinity (as I can see from the blue GPS dot – not visible here) are saying.
I can also upload information:
As you see here, what I am doing is creating content. Public content that is searchable. This is exactly what Google wants.
Now two scenarios can happen here.
1. Lets say, there is someone in the area looking for a good meal. Does a google search and this “buzz” comes up. Quite like a review. Maybe she decides to go for a meal. Now she can leave a (hopefully, positive) comment on my buzz and adds to the UGC.
2. Some hungry soul is passing by. He sees a the board, but not sure what it is, starts the goggles app on his mobile and he sees my buzz and possibly the previous user’s comment too.
Both these scenarios are set somewhere in the near future. This article on the San Francisco Chronicle is very relevant in the context of “social search”
“People are spending less time navigating the Internet on their own and are now navigating the Internet based on their friends’ recommendations or their friends’ activities,” said Dave Yovanno, chief executive of Gigya Inc., a Palo Alto firm that offers social-media services. “That’s one of the big trends we started picking up on probably four or five months ago.”
This comment is interesting. This is one of the reasons why Buzz could be the future for Google.
Then there’s Foursquare to contend with. From my usage of Foursquare, it’s still a game and people are more focused on checking-in rather than creating any useful content. There are deals and discounts, but they’ll have to scale up faster.
The other advantage Google has is the ability to link other properties it owns. Picasa, Blogger, Youtube, etc. Of course, we have Maps as an integral component. And there is the (in)famous launch of Buzz via GMail. Again, a bad decision on Google’s part. Karthik S on his website has written why Buzz is pointless.
But, here’s my biggest grouse with Google Buzz – it has the audacity to assume that my email contacts are the same ones that I want to socialize with, online.
I agree totally with what he says here. This has been a major mistake. Google did delink the auto follow quite fast as per reports. Search Engine Land also has a good article on Buzz here.
Some other tweets (not mentioning them here) talk about non-twitter users taking to Buzz quite well. Maybe that intial push through GMail did help. I have seen tweets that family members are on twitter, and so are colleagues.
I’ll leave you with one interesting use-case.
Let’s say that there is an emergency, maybe riots in multiple areas of a city. People can buzz with pictures and live reports. Of course they can be pinned to a particular location. Something like Ushahidi. They will also have the functionality to add images and videos, tag them and make them visible to a large audience in a lot of ways. In some ways, upgraded citizen journalists. It also has good potential for search-and-rescue over large areas.
There’s scope for local retailers to communicate to customers and offer them deals. It remains to be seen how they can push information on a real-time basis.
In closing: I think Buzz is the future for Google. Combined with maps and tools like goggles it builds a platform for next-generation search. Ideal places for rolling out such services would be places which have fast mobile internet (3G) and a large proportion of population with smartphones.
Comments welcome.
Privacy was a big goof up.
Whats happening is that a) Google believes that it need not the the first to market to be the eventual winner (like in search)so its betting on what is nearly a Twitter/FB clone b) as you pointed out ‘Content’ is what it want. Had read somewhere ‘We’re not google users, we’re the product’ in the big game.
Vineet,
It fits in with Google’s stated policy to organise the world’s information.
We’re the product, we’re the buyers, we’re the sellers. Only that Google makes money off us
Twitter Updates for 2010-02-16 // Feb 16, 2010 at 11:37 am
[...] RSS ← The buzz about Buzz [...]
Dude, it started out as a comment but turned into something else, read it here:
http://docs.google.com/Doc?docid=0AU0pVuYgGoHbZGdoOHJuenBfMTU2OWQ2anhicGI&hl=en
the tl;dr version: Good post, nice use case. now go read my opinion.
@bhuto
over the last year, Google has made efforts to increasingly move to a more Location based search platform. I think Buzz was created to further that intention.
My use of buzz has been to primarily connect with my gmail contacts, while my friends from SOcial Networks have not been too happy with this move as I aggregate all my online content into buzz – thereby creating duplication for folks who are my friends on multiple networks, I seem to be having meaningful conversations with my gmail contacts who are not on these Social Networks.
interesting… i dont know how to use it on the iphone and besides… i m scared abt buzz totally killing my privacy… what if i dont want to see someone? and they find out i was at a certain place… this info cud land into wrong hands and one must educate people about being careful with what they publish, no?
uberVU - social comments // Feb 17, 2010 at 1:55 am
Social comments and analytics for this post…
This post was mentioned on Twitter by prolificd: I wrote a blogpost about Google Buzz. http://www.prolificdyslexic.com/blog/?p=619. Please do read and comment. Thank you….
Nicely thought out and well written. My main grouse with Buzz or all things Google stems primarily not from the way the product is conceptualised or what it is meant to do, but the actual implementation and rollout itself.
Yes, privacy was a BIG issue on the second or third day of my using it and though Google says they’ve addressed the issue, doubts remain.
The other problem with integration of social network feeds/status messages is the sheer volume of duplicate content, which is chaotic and irritating to say the least.
..and btw, your scenario about the hungry soul kinda reminded me of the time all of us made our way to Oasis in camp
(though that was courtesy Nokia Maps I think)
I was reading @bhuto ‘s take on buzz and find reference to yours. I think buzz has the potential of opening up new revenue stream apart from advertising. (Obviously they will stay like “Sponsored Buzz!” ), rather than just advertising, google can help sellers reach and engage buyers in realtime. And as for 3G and smart phones, that should be almost everywhere in couple of years from now.
Thanks for the brilliant post
I liked the fact that for a ‘user’ your post delves deep into understanding Buzz and its usability. I think using Buzz + Maps as an active and qualitative GPS system is a great idea.
While I agree that Buzz does have some high points; overall, the service fails to impress as it tries to do too much and crams everything into your Gmail inbox.
It really looks like Twitter on steroids…and not really in a good way…
So you can continue your stalking ways???
Just kidding!
Interesting post and it’s nice to read a user’s perspective… but how much more should Google be allowed to scan our lives in the name of information? I’d be wary about posting my whereabouts. And while Buzz may have its plus points, I’m already fed up with keeping up with so many social media platforms. Email and phone are still not dead, you know
But then, to each his/her own! Make your choices and learn to live with them. Good luck!
Yeah – Geo based apps would pick up soon and Google seems to have again come in with the first integrated solution. Some apps had existed like Meetmoi etc, however none this comprehensive. Very good insights here #epic #win
The big deal about Buzz is that it is really no big deal. Yes, the launch scale is indeed different, compared to maybe Google Wave, but the underlying tech (I’m assuming) is already proven at Gmail/Google Reader scale, compared to Wave’s underpinnings.
Google does not work at products from a ‘kill-this’ or ‘kill-that’ perspective. They actually inhabit a world that is pretty unique – of improving what defines you, even when it has little interest in knowing you. Every product they release eventually falls into being yet another way of defining ‘you’.
At web scale, there is no dearth of information about every user, but to make sense of that swathe of information is something that everyone struggles with at the moment. For Google, each of these products work to more narrowly define each capsule of that data.
ex: a reply to a buzz has a direct correlation to the original buzz. This offloads computing by a massive factor for them and delivers better results than any algorithm would. For Google, the products are all about self-identifying data, but they won’t call it that.
The current crop of LBS is just a bunch of extremely nascent products. Buzz looks interesting, but it is far from the real deal.
Lets Crack – Episode 6 « Let's Crack – Web Marketing Podcast (India) // Feb 24, 2010 at 7:22 am
[...] Google Buzz What is Google Buzz? Why is Google Buzz so cool via the mobile?! The article mentioned in the podcast – Buzz for Mobile will change your life Another nice piece by @prolificd – The buzz about Buzz [...]
Twitter Updates for 2010-08-26 // Aug 26, 2010 at 11:32 am
[...] ayyo! I have only one blogpost on technology: http://www.prolificdyslexic.com/blog/?p=619 in reply to sidin [...]