Last week, the internet was abuzz with talk about Google's newest product, Google Buzz.
Unlike their last big launch, Google Wave, this product came out of nowhere. So what is Google Buzz?
Google Buzz is a web presence aggregator based on an early Twitter-like service named Jaiku. Google bought Jaiku years ago and did not seem to do anything with it.
Well, apparently, it was all under wraps; they used the Jaiku model to create Buzz.
Buzz can take all your personal web feeds and create a stream of your "web presence".
Every photo, blog post, video, status update, and other content you create can come out on your Buzz stream where other Google users can view it and comment.
The closest thing around to Google Buzz is FriendFeed, which was recently bought by Facebook.
While they seem roughly the same in a "me too" fashion, Buzz has one key difference. Google Buzz integrates directly with your Google account, which is a passport to many other websites.
I've been looking around the web for reactions to Buzz to see what others think about it. The reaction is mixed.
On one side, there are those who say, "oh, great! Another inbox that I can allow to overflow." On the other end of the spectrum are those who call Buzz a game changer, doing what Wave failed to do.
What makes Buzz great? In my opinion, there are two things Buzz does well: email and location.
When you use Facebook, you get bacon messages (Bacon is a notification message. It is not spam; but it is equally annoying.) that tell you somebody sent you a message.
Why not just send you the message instead of a notice that you got a message? Buzz does that. Buzz makes your email the center of your social media work.
What really sets Buzz apart is what Google did with location sharing. Buzz lets you post messages with your location.
This is very much like BlockChalk (see BlockChalk.com), except that the messages are not anonymous.
The benefit of this is that you can see what other people around you have said and who said them. If you are standing near a restuarant you'd like to try, you can fire up Buzz to see if anybody has commented on their food or service.
Whether you know a person who commented, or not, Buzz seems more conversational than some of the other social media streams.
In fact, you do not have to subscribe to a person's updates to interact with them.
This means that you can keep up with the few people who really matter by subscribing to their Buzz only, unlike other services.
One drawback to Buzz is that if you follow the right people, their streams will overwhelm you. This makes it next to impossible to keep up with those who matter most to you.
Unlike other social media sites that added features one at a time, Google came out the door with their comprehensive guns blazing.
They unified Gmail, Latitude, and a little bit of Wave. Best of all, Buzz is automatically added to your account so you don't have to wait around for an invitation to try it out.
Looking at the Google map of the Rio Grande Valley, some people are giving Buzz a try on their iPhones and Android devices.
If you want to check it out, point your iPhone or Android phone over to http://buzz.google.com to see what people are saying in your area.
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