How is Google Buzz Different from Facebook and Twitter?
Google announced Google Buzz today, a service intended for thesocial networking crowd that turns a normal Gmail account into a socialmedia powerhouse.
Google Buzz is "a new way to startconversations about the things you find interesting and share updates,photos, videos and more," according to the Google announcement. It will be rolling out to Gmail users over the next few days and is already available to smartphone users at buzz.google.com.
Google Buzz adds a few interesting twists to the traditional social mediamodule that make Google Buzz different enough from Facebook and Twitterto attract attention. Here are a few Google Buzz features that helpdifferentiate it from the competition.
Oneof the biggest benefits of using Google Buzz is that it's integratedinto what is already a powerful email client. It's a convenient optionto have email functionality built in to a social network. If youalready have a Gmail account or are willing to switch to one, it's oneless browser window and one less login because email, chat, and socialmedia functions are in one place.
Socialmedia networks often allow you to automatically friend people based onan email address book or other contact list. Google goes one better byautomatically detecting the contacts that you communicate with most andimmediately following them. then you can add or delete contacts fromGoogle Buzz much like you would in another service.
Instant Fullscreen Media Viewing
Uploadingimages and video for viewing is not new in the social networkingsphere. However, Google managed to improve that feature by makingpictures and video immediately viewable from the Buzz feed infullscreen mode. Pictures are also displayed in a scrolling gallerymenu so you can quickly switch between them. "We wanted photos to be afirst class citizen in Google Buzz," said Project Manager for GoogleBuzz, Todd Jackson.
Choosing Media Associated with Links
Whenyou copy a link into a Buzz post, Google pulls pictures and video fromthat page and lets you choose what to post with the link. Friends canimmediately see the images or video you chose to include, and in thefullscreen mode mentioned above.
Location-Based Posting and Results
VicGundotra, VP of Engineering, explained today that location is moreimportant than we think for social media. "Location is a powerfulsignal for relevancy," Gundortra said. iPhone and Android smartphoneusers can use the GPS antenna built into their phone to search forrelevant Buzz posts based on their location to find out what ishappening locally. Google is also able to translate the latitude andlongitude of your exact location into a place name, like the restaurantor building you are at, or even identify if you are at home or at work.
Instantaneous Privacy Settings for Posts
Formost social media sites, a user's account is either set to a public ora private profile. Google Buzz provides a simple dropdown box in theposting window that lets you easily change privacy settingsfor each post. Public posts are searchable and viewable by others andare posted to a Google profile. Private posts are only viewable bypeople you have explicitly approved.
GoogleBuzz can identify posts from friends of friend that may be interestingto you based on past behavior. If it seems like a good fit, Google Buzzwill recommend that post to you even though you aren't friends with theperson. the recommended post can easily be ignored if it isn'tinteresting.
Relevancy Rankings for the Google Buzz Feed
Thisis the feature that really takes advantage of Google's experience insearch relevancy. It may also be the biggest boon to social media.Google Buzz identifies the relevancy of each post based on what thepost contains, who and how many people have commented on it and thelocation of the sender (though the algorithm is obviously a little morecomplicated than that). If it's relevant to what Google Buzz knowsabout you and your likes and dislikes, the post will go to the top ofthe news feed. Google's announcement explained that, "Buzz also weedsout uninteresting posts from the people you follow - collapsinginactive posts and short status messages like 'brb.'"
Thisfeature alone has great implications for friend feeds. It prevents thenews feed from being overwhelmed by useless comments, leaving more roomfor interesting links and discussions, and it can act as an automaticspam filter, keeping the feed free of clutter.
Almost all of theadvantages that Google Buzz has over other services aren't necessarilynew features. for instance, location based search and posting is theidea behind Foursquare. And Google has only streamlined the link andmedia sharing features of Facebook and Twitter, not reinvented them. However, Buzz is noteworthy for putting all of these features and more into one place.
WhileGoogle isn't necessarily bringing new things to the table, it isbringing a lot of things to the table, period. And that kind of fullyfeatured experience, all in one place, may be exactly what people arelooking for.
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- Original story: how is Google Buzz Different from Facebook and Twitter?
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