back to article Google Buzz - Gmail mod for the Tweetbook set

Google has updated Gmail with a "social networking" add-on dubbed Google Buzz, a tool for sharing personal info with others à la Facebook and Twitter. The company has also introduced a mobile version at buzz.google.com - available on the iPhone and Google's own Android platform - and it provides hooks into the service from the …

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  1. spegru
    Thumb Down

    One step too far

    We need the internet to be open - not dominated by anyone. That's why I won't be using this.

    Google has probably too much power already

  2. heyrick Silver badge

    Oh, that's just marvellous.

    Spot the loaded sarcasm in the title.

    People who I'm in contact with would be able to have their thoughts pushed directly to my browser? Thank God I'm not a GMail user. I can't think of anything more horrid than a succession of instant summaries of what people are thinking.

    If you think what you have to say is that important, sign up for wordpress (or the like) and write something sensible with subject headings. Make your point succinctly, but with enough words to provide clarity.

  3. Jeremy 2
    Grenade

    Please...

    ...tell me you can switch it off. I rarely use the web interface anyway but this kind of crap splattered all over it will make it less 'rarely' and more like 'never, ever, even if my life depended on it'.

  4. tebiru
    Stop

    My memory may be failing me, but...

    ...I distinctly remember, back when Facebook started getting big, talk of social networking sites working towards some kind of common standard so that they can communicate with one another. Twitter and others seem to be quite open, but I've yet to see Facebook stuff feeding into anything else. Perhaps they feel their dominant position means they don't have to? I smell an anti-trust case somewhere along the lines...

    Because, until all of these services start fully communicating with eachother, there is not a hope in hell of anyone with years of friends, photos and other content on Facebook suddenly upping sticks to anywhere else.

    There's one or two things I like the look of in Buzz (the photo app looks much better than Facebook), so I'd like to take advantage of the better interface. But there's no way I'm bothering with anything else until standards are set and I can migrate easily to another service. I suspect many others would feel the same.

    PS - for all the whiners: it's turned off by default (I don't plan to use it), and there's no indication at this stage that they're going to suddenly force it upon everyone.

  5. Charlie

    Hmm

    Yahoo already have this integrated networking/email hash up, although without Google's "hooks". It's shit and irritating, and makes using yahoo mail even more of a hassle than it was beforehand.

  6. wgae
    Thumb Down

    Very convinced here...

    ...that Google Buzz will be the next big thing, like Froogle, no wait... like Orkut, uh noooo, wait, one more chance please... Nexus One, pffffft........

    But seriously, who gives a fuzz about buzz?

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      @wgae

      No one cares about Twitter either but it seems to have a large number of users...

  7. Geoff Campbell Silver badge

    @tebiru - Common standards

    XMPP has been around for about a decade, but none of the big systems use it, for reasons that escape me.

    http://xmpp.org/

  8. Andy 97
    Grenade

    Is this like google Wave?

    Who in the strategy department came up with this one then?

    Face it; people use Facebook for friends and Linkedin for business.

    If Linkedin got of their lazy corporate arses and released a whit label version, every intranet in the world would be fare game.

    Sorry Google, your world domination looks like it's stuck at search and maps.

  9. censored

    FriendFeed Killer??

    FriendFeed is pretty excellent at aggregating your various social feed, which can then be pushed out in a single RSS to wherever you like. It even has the commenting facility that Buzz has. That's clearly the inspiration, not Facebook or Twitter.

    Buzz could be a FriendFeed killer, except for one thing: it's behind a Gmail account. Only Gmail users get it. Are people going to sign up for Gmail just to get Buzz? Nope.... if it was available in a standalone app as well or instead, then it might just work.

    Even as a Google user, I can't use Buzz. I have two accounts, a gmail for Picasa/Reader and a hosted domain for mail, calendar and contacts. Since I spend all of my Gmail time in hosted window and where Buzz isn't available (yet), this Google and Nexus One user can't even access it....

  10. Joe K
    FAIL

    Lets cut the bullshit here....

    ...this is just an attempt to replace Twitter, from a misguided behemoth of a stumbling ad-broker.

    Google = the new microsoft. You've said it yourselves.

    Hope this crashes and burns like that awful Wave thing.

  11. Andrew James

    ANOTHER social network...

    Surely this is one too many?

    I have a facebook account, which is pretty useful for easily sharing pictures with family and friends. And i play some of the flash games, like pool etc if i'm desperate for something to do.

    I have a twitter account that i dont use because i cant be bothered, and i'm not a celebrity, so dont have many followers, and not too many of my friends are interested in twitter because it just isnt facebook.

    Its a nice idea, Buzz, sort of bringing the features of twitter and facebook together. Integration with twitter, and some of the other google apps like picassa is a good idea.

    I'm sure facebook integration will happen sooner or later. There are already desktop twitter apps that also integrate facebook status feeds... and Snapfish allows you to import pictures from your facebook albums... so the faciliy exists. Its just whether google and facebook want to do it or not.

    I dont really understand why i would want it integrated into my email though.

  12. Anonymous Coward
    Big Brother

    meh... they can buzz off...

    More fodder for their ad engines methinks.. not only can they target ads based on your email, but now what you/other people are "thinking"... I wish there was a way to extricate myself completely from the chocolate factory completely, its such a pity that the other search engines are piss poor in comparison...

    Big brother because, it's one company that's watching over all of us now... not individual governments...

    @mods, can we please have a "DO LOTS OF EVIL" icon???

  13. This post has been deleted by its author

  14. MyHeadIsSpinning
    WTF?

    Suitable generic title assumed

    FTA:- "But unlike on Facebook and Twitter, you can post both publicly and privately"

    Eh?

  15. Jamie Jones Silver badge

    Mr

    "But unlike on Facebook and Twitter, you can post both publicly and privately, and as posts from others stream into your browser, Google will flag those that it deems more important than others. That's the "relevance" bit."

    Facebook does all of that too

    1. Anonymous Coward
      FAIL

      It's Google...

      Absolutely nothing you do in the Googleverse is private. Let's not forget that they have access to it all. What they mean here is that it isn't public to anyone other than them (ditto Facebook and Twitter of course). 'Private' to these companies is completely meaningless.

  16. AceRimmer1980

    GoofBook

    I have a Gmail account, but I *only* use it from POP3, they can do this sort of fannying all they want, I won't even notice, let alone make use of it.

  17. stim

    poogle

    i don't use google anymore (well sometimes for maps). don't like what they've become.

    we need a 'G' demon logo please 'el Reg...

  18. Nat Pryce
    Thumb Down

    Buzztards

    What a terrible idea.

  19. Patrick O'Reilly
    FAIL

    Android 2.0+ Only

    Most Android users are still waiting on their vendors to release the 2.0/1 firmware update.

    Google Buzz for Android only works on Android 2.0 as it uses HTML5 for it's web app capabilities. Android 1.6 and below uses Google Gears for web apps which is not compatable.

    Google have just left the majority of their userbase behind.

    Also the Google Buzz layer for Google Maps mobile only works with version 4.0+, once again unavailable on Android 1.5 and below.

  20. Corona
    Big Brother

    Title goes here

    The only reason Google are doing this is because they see 400 million people entering information into a system that they can't access, store and profile for advertising and they want it.

    I'm guessing that anyone who "buzzes" about somtething is quickly going to find advertising on that thing plastered all over their inbox.

  21. FordPrefect
    FAIL

    Its rubbish

    Well I logged in and finally got buzz and was even more under whelmed than when I first saw wave. Its ugly, lacks the intuitive interface of twitter and lacks the tools and integration of facebook for communicating with family and friends. As far as I can see its totally fail and google should give up and concentrate on search and chrome!

  22. Anonymous Coward
    Thumb Up

    Get lost Google.

    >>"This is becoming a large-scale problem, a relevance problem. The kind of problem we like at Google. It’s like when we launched Gmail. Today, we're launching Google Buzz, a Google approach to sharing."

    I think this shows how far up their own arses they really are!

    I really am becoming to hate Google. I used to just dislike them, but this goes way past that.

    And they genuinely think they will topple Facebook? I imagine I'll get plenty of invites from people saying that they are on Fuzz, but I don't care. Wanna interface with me - I'm on Facebook. I'm not going to run multiple social sites just because Google needs yet more market share. I did the same with Skype - wanna chat to me online, then I'm on Skype. Not going to maintain 8 different chat clients to keep everyone happy.

    Screw you all. Bah humbug....

  23. Cliff

    They pushed it at me today

    I looked at it for 20-30 seconds, realised it was everything I hate about 'Web2', and yes, it does have a 'turn off buzz' small link at the bottom of your inbox. I tested it, it made it go away. There ends the story.

  24. Colin_L
    Boffin

    Hrrmm

    I think I'm actually seeing Tweets and Facebook updates from people that I've followed with Buzz. And I absolutely, positively do not have a Twitter or Facebook account.

    Interesting that this content is being parroted through Buzz. I may comment on one of them just to see if I can.

    I agree this about chiefly about ads. Easy call there, nice slow one right over the plate.

  25. Falafel
    Linux

    People on facebook...

    play Farmville or Yoville or some other lame wanna-be MMORPG. They bake fucking cupcakes to buy more shit for their digital fucking apartment. Life is boring, facebook proves it. Wake up you lazy fucking sheeple!

    I'm working on a buzz now, you know the 'old fashioned' kind. Ale & other non mentionables.

  26. DJ 2
    Stop

    There's a stop buzz link at the bottom of gmail

    took me only 5 seconds to see that my Following / Followers included an ex-girlfriend that was still in my address book for me to delete the whole bloody thing.

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