Last night, I had the chance to try out the Google Buzz on my iPhone. The odd thing was (and still is) that I don’t have it available in my desktop browser view of my Gmail account. While Google did advise that it would be rolled out gradually, one would think that, if they had it available on their mobile computing platform of choice, it would, by default, also be available in the traditional browser view. That minor issue aside, I took the time to set up my profile via my iPhone and set it up for use.
As I went through the process, though, I began to wonder how many other people were simultaneously doing the same thing. If someone is already an established and regular user of Twitter, Facebook, or both, are they going to try and woo everyone else over to Google Buzz? The fact is that Twitter and Facebook may not be perfect, but they were (more or less) the first to establish a foothold in social networking. Any company attempting to come along with a competing product that is designed to overtake Twitter and Facebook faces a monumental and uphill battle to do so.
As an objective geek, I pushed these thoughts out of my mind and forged ahead to complete the Google Buzz setup. After completing the task and beginning to follow social media and entrepeneur, Robert Scoble, on Buzz (@Scobleizer), though, I began to have second thoughts. I thought back to why I have a Gmail account in the first place. I use it for an “all other mail” address. That is to say when a website that I know I won’t use every day requires me to create an account to browse its forums, download a guide, or use services, I register with my Gmail account. Why? As the founder (and as a follower) of Geek Shui, one of my goals is to keep my regularly used inboxes free of unnecessary clutter. To take it a step further, my internet life is segmented. I use a separate Google account to manage Adsense, Adwords, and Analytics. My Twitter and Facebook accounts are not joined at the hip either. Twitter is for everyone with whom I have established social (albeit fairly anonymous) connections. Facebook is for close friends and family only. My website is where the whole world can view me. None of these provide any real insight into my home life, which is exactly the way I designed it.
While the way I set up and manage my internet life may not be the way everyone sets up theirs, it does have its benefits. Most people don’t want their work, home, and social life to be entirely mixed. You have different circles in which you socialize, at different times and depending upon what it is you’re doing. Dividing your life into different groups allows for a less hectic pace in your personal group, while escaping from the pressures of your work group. On the same token, do you really want the collective sum of your internet life to be mixed and available in one place? Looking at it from an information security angle, it is the same as placing all of your important data, applications, etc. on a single server. This would create a single point of failure if you were to fall victim to a network intrusion or denial of service attack. All of these considerations and questions enable us to lay out some potential positives and negatives and help you decide if total defection from Twitter or Facebook to Buzz is warranted or, alternatively, if adding Google Buzz to your current set of tools adds any real value to your web presence.
Who Might find Google Buzz to be Useful?
- Businesses and self-employed professionals who heavily rely on Google Apps for daily operations and can leverage Buzz for communication and collaboration with internal employees and external partners.
- Anyone who uses Gmail as their primary email account, monitors it all day long, and dislikes having to use anything else.
- People who just can’t get enough of social networking and have time to monitor yet another account.
- Those who like to be Geo-Tagged and the “Mayor of Everywhere”.
- Anyone who doesn’t mind Google actually having insight into a huge slice of your life. (You know they will.)
Who May Not Find Google Buzz to be Useful?
- People who have already established large followings with other Twitter, have many Facebook Friends, and don’t want to have to start over from zero on Buzz.
- Anyone who includes among their list of Twitter “likes” the 140-character limit. (Buzz has the potential to see users to post annoyingly-long comments.)
- Those who do not use their real names on Twitter for the purposes of semi-anonymity but whose username on Google contains part or all of their real name.
- Businesses or self-employed people whose Google-stored files may contain private, sensitive, or proprietary data, since a publicly-available Google Buzz account is just another point of entry into your entire Google account.
- People who just have a bad feeling about stacking all of their virtual eggs in a single, virtual basket. (Remember January 2010′s Google Intrusion?)
Are there more pros and cons? Of course there are, but they depend on each person’s likes and dislikes, internet habits, etc. For some Google Buzz will be the best thing since cheese in a can. For others, though, it just won’t be a good fit. As the service is rolled out completely, we’ll get a better view of the computing public’s reception and how big of a hit it will be. Regardless of the outcome, you have to give kudos to Google for not just preaching, but also practicing, creativity, innovation, and the improvement of how we digitally interact and collaborate with other internet users around the world. Oh, by the way, during the writing of this article, Google pushed Buzz out to my web-based Gmail account. Thanks, Google! I guess I’ll have to prove my technological objectivity and test it out a little longer. If you’re testing it out, too, feel free to follow me (Search for: Geek Shui), and I’ll be certain to follow you back.
Justin E. Gehrke is the founder and owner of Geek Shui Living. As a right and left-brained geek, he writes Tech articles for MWD and his own site Geek Shui Living. You can also follow his Tech commentary and random geek ramblings, via Twitter, at @GeekShui
Bravo J! Bravo…great article.