Google Buzz - Should Facebook and Twitter be Worried?

If you haven't seem Google Buzz yet, it is actually a new social networking platform introduced by Google. You probably need to have a Gmail account in order to try it. I have been using Gmail as my primary email account. So when I logged into my Gmail account today morning, I was prompted to enable this feature.

I think it's easier for you to understand what Google Buzz is by watching the following video.


It seems that Buzz is Google's weapon to fight against already well-established social networking sites like Twitter and Facebook. Hickey posted an article on ChannelWeb in which he listed out 5 reasons Google Buzz has Facebook and Twitter worried. It is a very well-written article. However, I doubt that Google Buzz would have any significant impact to Facebook and Twitter at least in the near future. Google needs to have some strategies to make what the users would want and what Facebook and Twitter have overlooked available on the Buzz platform. After all, Internet users are usually reluctant to make a change to another social networking platform unless there is a big reason to do it. And the reason is never because it is a Google's product.

As an Information Technology student, I am more interested in finding out whether Google will make Buzz an open platform for developers to create applications. While Google already has its own social application platform - OpenSocial, making application available for Buzz users is also very crucial. My girlfriend would never spend so much time on Facebook if she could not have fun playing all kinds of game applications.

Check out more about Google Buzz at http://www.google.com/buzz. */