Google enters the Twitter arena – just better.

Twitter is a social enigma that is just uber-popular, but now everyone is getting in to the business of cloning Twitter.

The process is kind of confusing in its application, but everyone seems to like sharing their links and their activities.

My perspective on Twitter is it’s the best search engine in the world because it’s live, actual links, people are using are being submitted to Twitter and searches can be issued against it and most likely you can find what your looking for. And so, why wouldn’t Google be interested in this type of service?

When I logged on to my Gmail account I was notified of the new Google service that’s being offered, called BUZZ.

What is it? How can it benefit me and WHY would I even bother? These are just some questions that hit me as I just stood there staring at this small [full page] banner.

The distribution of Google Buzz should be fairly simple and fast because it’s integrated with GMAIL. All the notifications are sent to the users Gmail account; something Twitter doesn’t do. Abilities to replay to the notifications right there is something that Facebook never quite understood until recently. I don’t think people really like clicking all other the place when they manage these incoming streams.

The more you’ve to ‘manage’ these streams of information, the less attractive they’re.

Here’s a quick video about it Google Buzz…

From the video the fact that images and videos are easier to share… What I mean is the presentation of the shared content.

My issue with Twitter all along has been it’s presentation. Tweets are sent and information is shared, but the presentation of the shared content is horrible. If it’s a video, where’s the imbedded video option to view it right there as opposed to having to click a link, wait for it to load and then having to go back again… why can’t you do this without  leaving what your doing?

I good example of this would be Reddit.com. When video links are shared there, the video is embedded and it just expands when a person clicks play. This should be the same with photos.

A few of the things I found interesting about Buzz is the public and private sharing of information. It’s a refreshing note from Google as well; respecting and considering privacy. Google is always under fire for privacy issues.

Buzz has limited integration with Twitter from the very beginning, but the other services are Google based services.

A very nice point about this release is that they already understand the importance of following a thread, understanding a conversation. Twitter didn’t do this for a long time, so we can see that Google is learning from others mistakes.

Google has also jumped ahead with Google Buzz by mixing it with Google Maps. A great point of this would be to show an area of activity, for say, a natural disaster, for an accident or social event. Google Buzz’s could be sent, and then shown on a map. This would be great for news, because now everyone is a reporter, an eye witness if you will. Google Buzz comments could be used in relation to the event… it could be interesting.

If you try it, tell me what you think…

Thanks,
L. Henry Jr.
http://www.lehsys.com