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Google Buzz not buzzing with me (and my email) all that much

OK, so Google launched Google Buzz yesterday. Their next attempt to do something about this whole social media stuff that they never managed to pull off. Facebook and Twitter are growing like crazy and the search giant (well, all the giants, including Yahoo and Microsoft) seem not to comprehend the social craziness.

Google_buzz

People seem to like buzz, but I have mixed feelings about it:

Integration with Gmail adds noise to my email

Google decided to use their Gmail user base to make sure the buzz is being used... so now everyone has buzz in their Gmail account. I get enough messages in my email inbox that it distracts me from my work, so I don't need more noise.

Furthermore, if someone comments on a buzz, I get it to my inbox... I don't want more stuff in my inbox. I grew up in the "Inbox zero" world and it's hard enough to keep it up anyway... Luckily there is a hack for that :-)

New profile, new followers....

So I had to set up a new Google Profile, and it seems I need to set up new followers and following! No thank you, I've been working hard enough on my Twitter following and I have more than 8K+ followers (thanks guys and gals!) and I don't feel like building it all again.

My current social media flow...

My main hub is my Twitter account. Statuses from there go to my Facebook profile and Linkedin profile... I occassionally use comments on Facebook and I use Llinkedin strictly for business related stuff. Why do I need Buzz? Can't find any real use for that.

Can you convince me to give Google Buzz a try? Like it? Hate it? What's your take?

--> me I'm Michael Sliwinski and I'm an entrepreneur who's also the...
.. Founder of Nozbe.com - a time and project management web application
.. Editor of Productive! Magazine - a global PDF publication on productivity
.. and a blogger as well as a producer of a weekly 2-minute Productive! show.

Posted on Thursday, February 11, 2010 (buzz,email,google,gtd,productivity)

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Brian Houser
Feb 11, 2010 16:42
Michael, I think you're spot-on about Buzz. I see it as an improved version of Twitter that could eventually compete with Facebook. But if you already have a large Twitter fan base, you have little incentive to switch. At its current stage of development it should mainly appeal to Gmail users who haven't gotten heavy into Twitter or Facebook.

I think Google realizes it has to get in the game sooner rather than later and its only chance is to start building a buzz (pun intended) and get developers building apps on the API to help draw users in.

At the least, this will add competition to the social media environment and cause everyone to step up their game. I think it has the potential to become the platform of choice and push out Twitter and others, but it will take years for them to get there.

Michael Sliwinski
Feb 11, 2010 19:27
Google Buzz can be an incentive for all those Gmail users who haven't started their social media adventure yet, you're right. For all of those committed to Twitter and Facebook it'd be too much of an investment to now build the follower base on Buzz from ground up.

And I also don't think I want Buzz in my Gmail inbox, I prefer to choose when I engage in social media and when I get email done.

Thanks for your great comment Brian!