A new social networking capability to its popular Gmail Web e-mail service. Though Google Buzz is somewhat integrated with Twitter, along with a few other services – Flickr , most notably – there's no integration with the social network of record, Facebook. And that's a hole Google will have to fill.
Social networking with Google Buzz
The first time you enter your Buzz-enhanced Gmail inbox, you'll see the contacts Google has found for you. Alas, I only had one at first, my boss. Most users will likely see more proposed contacts, since I was using an account I use for testing rather than a personal one (I've stuck with Yahoo Mail for my personal email.)
Next, I got a chance to follow other users. Who better to follow than Google's Sergey Brin, and the product's manager, Todd Jackson. Like Twitter, and unlike Facebook, Google Buzz lets you follow anyone you want and view their public posts. This is one aspect I really like about Buzz, and one that takes something good from both Facebook and Twitter: its ability to create a public, Twitter-like feed, and a private one like Facebook for folks you really know.
Posting with Google Buzz
Choosing whether to post to your private social network instead of the public at large is a simple matter of clicking the big, obvious "Private/Public" dropdown right next to the "Post" button. Facebook has just added an option to post to "Everyone on the Internet"; most people expect that only mutually approved Friends will see their updates. Twitter is what people associate with public announcements anyone on the Internet can see. In fact, it gets annoying when tweeters you've followed to learn from their expertise engage in personal back-and-forths; in Facebook it's expected. Buzz is trying to offer a two-in-one service – private and public.
The only post options aside from text at this point are "Link," and "Photo". I was disappointed to find that inserting a YouTube link didn't add the video to the post, but rather just an image of the video. On another try, I did get a video entry with a play button, but a notice said embedding was disabled. But the third try was the charm; I saw the embedded video.
After you post, you have a few choices from a right-hand menu: you can edit your post, delete it, or email it. You can also create a link to it, which actually creates a standalone Web page for the post—neat! Another choice is Mute, which shows up whether you or someone else is the creator of the post. Hitting this makes the post slowly disappear from view. Other choices for posts not from yourself are "view all buzz from [User name]", "follow," and "report abuse.
Credits: google.com, PCMAG
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