On Tuesday, the Wall Street Journal announced that Google had plans to launch a social networking option to their popular Gmail system. This is merely one more advancement in the Bing vs. Google vs. Facebook battle that’s been going on for months. Let’s recap:
Late 2009
1. Bing announces that they’re working on search deals with Twitter and Facebook and launches their Twitter Integration during the Web 2.0 summit.
2. Google announces their deal with Twitter and lanches Google Social Search. This basically enables Google to show results from your friends/followers social profiles in addition to basic search results. This is dependent on the fact that you have a Google profile set up and your social friends do too. Click here to set up your Google Profile.
Early 2010
3. Facebook announces Project Titan (aka the Gmail killer) which is an email system with POP/IMAP functionality that can be easily set up with MS Outlook, Mac Mail, etc. Facebook hopes that this will encourage Facebook users to use their site for social networking as well as email.
4. Google announced on Tuesday that they are launching Google Buzz in an effort to add the social networking feature to Gmail.
Introducing Google Buzz
This morning (one day later), in addition to a morning snow storm in much of the country, Gmail users are greeted with this screen:
Some of the Buzz features are as follows:
- Find the “Buzz” tab under the Inbox tab in the upper left column. This allow you to go back and forth between social network and email.
- You can use the same keyboard shortcuts as Google.
- There are public/private sharing options for different posts.
- There’s a system of email alerts to ensure you don’t miss a thing.
- @ replies are supported (as seen in Twitter)
Mobile Features:
- Google Buzz is also available via your mobile phone
- Navigation functionality to ping your location
- Click “nearby”, and you can see what people are talking about nearby
Much like gmail when it first launched, I feel that Google Buzz will take a few days to get used to. However, this is one more reason to encourage Google users to set up Google Profiles. In turn, this will enable their social networks to be searchable by friends and followers… pushing the newly launched Google Social Search function to even greater success.
For more information on Google Buzz, visit Mashable: http://mashable.com/2010/02/09/google-buzz/
Thanks for the late-breaking news and mini tutorial. I’ll share it on my Facebook accout and check out the Buzz!
[...] their popular Gmail system. This is merely one more advancement in the Bing vs Read the rest here: Introducing Google Buzz: Social Networking via Gmail Tags: been-going, bing, merely-one, more-advancement, popular, social-networking, street, [...]