Google Buzz: It could be more distracting than helpful
A week ago google unleashed google buzz. I started using it and even connected twitter to it, so my tweets can be sent to google buzz. But I also noticed that google buzz can be fairly distracting. When I login into gmail, I just want to use gmail and as a friend of mine just told me, “I don’t want have to lean yet another social network.” Not surprisingly she’s not alone. I saw several people on my google buzz request information on how to turn it off.
My impression of google buzz is that while google is trying to enter the social media arena, their effort could be more of a distraction and more annoying than helpful, at least at the beginning. This isn’t surprising, because google is also trying to pull off Google wave, and as always is also dealing with SEO and Google docs, maps, etc. And it may be that google buzz is ultimately a distraction for Google, when it should be focusing on continuing to refine google wave.
The real problem however is that Google is stating to imitate Microsoft. It’s trying to get into everything web oriented, instead of focusing at what its good at, and the backlash for doing that is that Google is already being compared to Microsoft. Google wants to be all things to everyone on the web, instead of focusing on being good at what they already do.
It’s true that any company wants to stay on the edge and be competitive, but Google has put a lot of new tech out there. Google wave is new enough, and not very well explained that many people don’t have a clue on how to use it. Add in Google buzz and what you get is just another social network, in a sea of them and one which isn’t well laid out or explained. Before Google Buzz can become big, Google needs to explain it better, just as they need to do so with Google Wave.
What are your thoughts? Is google buzz helpful or distracting?
Categories: Social Media
Tags: google buzz, google wave, Social Media, social networking, Taylor Ellwood, twitter
It is true that Google Buzz is not for everyone at the moment, we need to consider that this is the early adopter phase and there are going to be issues, bugs, glitches and overall annoyances I think once the novelty wears off and the "tweaks" start to go live Buzz has real potential.
Hi Cheryl,
Certainly that's a good point to make. And as you can see on my blog, I already have a google buzz button. I don't think Google will get rid of it. I just think they need to really think out how they will integrate buzz into everything else they are already doing.
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