Google only does this because they can and they are that big that maybe they can get away with it as well. There are alot of people who are using gmail, so alot of exposure.

No doubt it has its problems but Google can throw bucks and resources at this project.

The uptake from gmail users will be large so it has a head start on many social platforms.

Early days to write it off now.

As those connections become something more – romantic relationships, project collaborations, business deals, friendships – those interactions move to other channels which are more suited to the inner details… IM, email, IRC, whatever. With the stuff I have, I’ve been able to *detect* that a transition has been made, but the other side of the situation is lost.

Buzz changes the game and makes the connection portion public. Sure, I still don’t have the content/context but there are enough other sources of public information available, I can make some educated guesses.

Sometime I’ll tell you how to use Delicious+Linked In for nefarious purposes. ;)

While I also disagree that Buzz will be an absolute failure, I do understand that it has many shortcomings. But hey, it was only released a few days ago. Since Twitter, Facebook, FriendFeed, etc. have become more popular and more widely adopted many of us think that we are now social networking experts and can look at a new social network and tell if it will become popular on not. Turn Buzz back on and actually use it for a week or two and find the good things that it brings to the table that other social networks don’t currently offer.

: )

Just after Buzz’s release, I saw a tweet (from a techno-celebrity who shall remain nameless) who proclaimed that it would “kill Facebook”. My thought was, “Seriously?”

Many on Twitter, etc. forget that the average user on Facebook has never even HEARD of Google Buzz (in fact, “What’s this BUZZ thing?” is the single most popular update IN Buzz right now) and doesn’t give a poo about “building community” on yet another social site. Most of their users don’t “get” Twitter and, more to the point, have no interest in “getting” Twitter. The notion that these people will leave Facebook in droves to use a platform that doesn’t do nearly as much is just silly.

The bottom line for the rest of us is “why switch?” My switching “costs” are great now that I have hundreds of LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter contacts (although I am in regular contact with a fraction of that)

In other words, what’s the “hook” that will get someone over to a new platform at this point in time? Unless they spin a value proposition I can’t refuse, the pain of switching outweighs the benefits of whatever their platform offers.

Many of us are overloaded with shiny objects and unless this helps us in a revolutionary way (isn’t that what FB and Twitter have already done?), Google Wave and Google Buzz should be re-bundled together and called Google Yawn.

A friend of mine suggests it’s possibly to work to take some value out of other social networking sites like Twitter.

Might want to correct your spelling of Picasa, as well.

Thanks