The Interwebs are buzzing about Google's latest attempt at world domination, its Facebook-style Google Buzz program that lets users "follow" friends, share content, and track where and when online buddies are traveling. The program will also be able to sync itself with Gmail services, meaning the Buzz service could be a one-stop shop for social media fanatics.
Buzz will give techies another platform to broadcast their lives, adding yet another medium to a growing movement of social networking sites. For some Internet-savvy experts, the "buzz" is great -- but for others, it's too much information:
- Google Buzz is a "rip-off from Yahoo" that isn't capable of competing with massive media giant Facebook, Dan Frommer writes for the Silicon Alley Insider. "The truth about Google Buzz: It's late, boring and lame," he writes.
- No matter how slick the program is, it's just adding more cooks to an already crowded social media kitchen, writes Jessi Hempel for CNNMoney.com. "Aren't we already swimming under copious amounts of status updates and shared media coming from services like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, MySpace, Foursquare, etc.?" Hempel asks.
- The service will eventually be able to run with the big dogs like Facebook and Twitter but needs some refinement, Chris Smith writes for the TFTS Technology and Gadgets blog. With a powerful name like Google behind it, Buzz is destined to work: "the company is slowly taking the Internet over and these are just some of the baby steps it needs to accomplish that," according to Smith.
- Buzz may just be another player in the social media market, but will be a valuable tool in helping to untangle the messy networking web, MG Siegler writes for TechCrunch.com. "There's simply too much going on, and no one is really working to sort it all out. Google is trying to do that with Buzz," Siegler writes.
- Facebook and Twitter are no matches for Buzz, according to the Financial Times' Chris Nuttall, who calls the program a "social Swiss Army knife" that streamlines the online social world. Google Buzz offers a "richer, more connected and complex real-time experience," Nuttall writes, adding the program is Google's "best attempt by far to tackle social networking."
