Mountain View, California — Search engine behemoth Google is heading for a head-to-head combat with Facebook and Twitter after it unveiled a bundle of new social networking features on its email service. Google, on Tuesday announced a new social networking service called Google Buzz, which allows Gmail users to share status updates, images, videos and read and comment on the updates posted by friends, which the California, company has tagged as a “new approach to sharing”.
For a large number of Internet users globally, Google is the No. 1 stop when searching for information online. But when it comes down to keeping in touch with family and friends, users have usually abandoned the search giant in favor of such sites as Facebook, MySpace or Twitter. But now, all that is about to change with the launch of Google Buzz.
The company says that with Buzz, Google is attempting to reinforce its foothold in social media while countering the growing power of Twitter and Facebook by adding social networking features — such as the ability to share links, photos, videos and status updates with friends — to the company’s existing Gmail email service.
Google’s Todd Jackson said Google Buzz will make it possible to follow the people you contact the most and “you are sure to see the stuff that matters most.” Jackson also hinted at Google Buzz for businesses and said mobile devices add a new dimension.
It has become a user-centric world where users communicate via status updates, third-party applications, and shared groups. And thanks to a group of mostly Canadian engineers at the company’s Waterloo office, users will be able to access Buzz on their smartphones too.
Google has entered into the social networking arena before, most notably with its Orkut service, which proved to be a failure in North America but developed a loyal following in both India and Brazil.
“It is probably the most serious challenge to the dominant social networks to date,” said Carmi Levy, an independent technology analyst in London, Ont.
“If Facebook and Twitter were not scared before, they really ought to be now. Google has been firing empty bullets at the wall for years and failing, but it was only a matter of time before they managed to connect all the dots and leverage what makes them successful in the social networking space.”
Core Features: Gmail Integration
Nevertheless, Google has made many attempts to gain traction in the social web, but so far nothing has really worked. But now, Google hopes that instead of conversing on Facebook, Twitter, or MySpace, users will instead flock to Google Buzz for conducting their social activity.
“Google Buzz is a new way to begin communicating about the things you find interesting. It is stacked right into Gmail, so you do not have to peck out an entirely new set of friends from scratch — it just works,” Jackson wrote in an announcement blog post.
The major means of interacting with Google Buzz will be through Gmail. Below your inbox, there will be a tab for Buzz, allowing you to read status updates, photos, and video. The 40 persons you communicate with the most in Gmail and Gchat are automatically added as friends. Buzz updates also appear in your inbox if someone comments on your updates or comments, or someone directs a Buzz to your attention by using the familiar “@” symbol.
Buzz will take advantage of the social network inherent in e-mail by “automatically setting you up to follow the people you e-mail and chat with the most,” Jackson said.
Jackson also emphasized that Google Buzz features will also be available on Android based phones as well as the iPhone (via a Web-based application) allowing for real-time updates to your Google Buzz feed that can show up on a new version of Google’s mobile maps.
“We have relied on other services’ openness in order to build Buzz (you can connect Flickr and Twitter from Buzz in Gmail), and Buzz itself is not designed to be a closed system. Our goal is to make Buzz a fully open and distributed platform for conversations. We are building on a suite of open protocols to create a complete read/write developer API,” Jackson wrote.
Take A Visual Tour Of Google Buzz:
Google says the new Google Buzz tab will come on display in about 1 percent of Gmail user accounts starting today. Google says the rest of Gmail users will be able to see a new Google Buzz tab in their accounts within a week.