By Toivo Mvula
Google recently launched its social networking site aptly named Google Buzz with a lot of buzz.
Now, many are asking if we need another social networking site when everyone is either using Facebook, Twitter, Myspace, Bebo and the like.
Google Vice President for Product Development, Bradley Horowitz, told eWeek last week that Buzz was not created to challenge Facebook and Twitter, but to complement them.
Whatever that means!
Horowitz added that Google Buzz “is not just about status-casting. It’s not just checking in. It’s about meaningful interactions around meaningful topics within Buzz and it’s reaching the right audience and people are engaged.”
Popular blogger, Pete Cahmore of cnn.com and mashable.com explains the difference fairly better by referring to Facebook as a local bar, Twitter as a town square and Google Buzz as a campus.
He states: “While Twitter is ideal for public messaging and Facebook for managing your personal life, Buzz proves most useful when you're in search of answers. Post a question and your friends will weigh in with suggestions, tips and ideas. It's a place for inquiry, for learning and collaboration.”
Google Buzz is only two weeks old. If mashable.com’s differentiation of the three is correct, then maybe Google need to start promoting Buzz as such to attract more users, because now most people are seeing it as offering nothing new in the already saturated market of social networking.
I agree with those who question whether we need another social space, as Myspace loses favour to the likes of Facebook and Twitter I don't see the need for any more of these networking sites to be put in place. I think people will become tired of the constant updating as people tend to be members to more than one site the constant updating becomes more of a task than an enjoyable thing. With regards to the awareness surrounding GoogleBuzz i think they must start trying to create some 'Buzz' about their new product for it to become a success as this is first time I have come across any information regarding it. Perhaps they need to become more aware of the usefulness of social media as a PR tool.
ReplyDeleteI wasn’t even aware of Google Buzz until I read your blog! Maybe I just haven’t been paying attention to the latest developments or maybe Google has got its marketing wrong?
ReplyDeleteWith Google owning so much of our data will people be willing to share their personal day to day activities with the corporate giant? Just recently we all had the option of changing our internet browser and to a large extent the media threw up the same question about Google Chrome.