Wednesday 10th February 2010
Google creates a Buzz
This evening was going to be one of those rare events - an evening off. No computers, no beating IE6 into submission with CSS, just a few episodes of 'The Big Bang Theory' and an early night.
But a few hours ago Google announced Buzz, their third attempt at capturing the Social Networking market. Their previous attempts, Orkut and Google Latitude met with limited success. By integrating this new offering into Gmail they are going straight for the mainstream in a clear challenge to both Twitter and Facebook.
Buzz access is being rolled out to Gmail users over the next few days and at the moment I don't have the new 'Buzz' link under the Inbox in the top left of the page. However I've been able to read and comment on a public Buzz created by another user. Once you have commented to an existing Buzz then any further comments appear in your email Inbox and can be responded to there - as well as from the Buzz pane. This worked fine even without the full account update.
Buzz looks and feels like Twitter but has the realtime update of Google Wave, integrated photo albums, and the mobile version adds location-based features too. For example, the Android Google Maps application updated this evening to add a Buzz layer which provides some of the features of Latitude such as being able search for Buzzes close to your geographical location. Public Buzzes show as small speech bubbles on the map and clicking the Buzz button lists the currently visible Buzzes as a timeline. I can see that someone has just commented from the bus-stop just outside my house!
Unfortunately for full access to the Buzz mobile app you'll currently need an iPhone or Android 2.0+. BlackBerry, Nokia S60 and Windows Mobile are 'coming soon' but it is not looking good for original G1 owners stuck on Android 1.6 who will only have the Maps layer.
Posted by frogplate at 01:22.