Since Google launched Google Buzz, I’ve been trying to wrap my mind around their strategy.    One of the first public (Buzzes? Buzzez? Buzz’s?)  I received was from Jeff Pulver, who posted a rather “wait and see” opinion on Buzz…

“Feeling a little buzz around me. It will be interesting to see how this platform evolves. Seems like another piece in the items which will help define the future of how we communicate using non-telephony platforms.” – Jeff Pulver via Buzz.

This prompted a flurry of other comments, including:

Joel Mark Witt - I’m loving Buzz. It is bringing the conversation to me… in my Gmail inbox … where I live most of the time.

geo GELLER - i am not sure this is not another distraction and too landlocked in email – its not twitter – its your email list which is nice but but but and further more hmmm

I commented on the similarity to FriendFeed and how I felt like my Gmail inbox was starting to become almost as forgotten as MySpace (or Orkut!)

Part of the conversation included a discussion of how people are linked up in Buzz.  Google apparently has been autoconnecting Buzz profiles to other Buzz users based on who’s already in your Google Contacts list and this is causing a bit of a stir in the privacy world…

WARNING: Google Buzz Has A Huge Privacy Flaw

Anyway…I agree with Jeff and certainly think  the Buzz has some growing to do.   It’s already much more user-friendly and easier to grasp than Google Wave (I wonder how many Waves there are about Buzz?).  Picasa provides photo sharing…Google chat is already integrated.  And if you integrate Google voice, then you have AudioBoo functionality as well.   Connect your Twitter and Facebook feeds, and suddenly Google is your social networking glue.  They should’ve called it Gluegle.

Buzz might just be Google’s secret back door into social networking.

Oh, and if you’re trying to figure out how to get started with Google Buzz….go here:  http://www.google.com/buzz

Despite what a handful of lawmakers may say, the dispute between Google and AT&T over Google Voice is not so much about fairness or rural access as it is about steamy phone sex and piles of money.

These lawmakers, including Steve Buyer, an Indiana Republican and John Shimkus, an Illinois Republican — who have received a combined $200,000 from AT&T and Verizon over their careers, according to Opensecrets.org — have written to the FCC complaining that Google’s refusal to connect expensive rural calls is “ill conceived and unfair to our rural constituents.”

Technically, the dispute is over FCC regulations governing how long-distance and local phone companies pay each other for traffic that passes from national to local networks. Since Congress deregulated the telecommunications industry in 1996, much of this traffic comprises extremely lucrative sex chat lines, which the national carriers wind up paying for. AT&T has never been happy about that, and it’s now livid that Google Voice can avoid having to connect such calls — thus dodging this twisted fee scheme.

AT&T vs. Google Voice: Sex, money, the feds, and your phone bill — DailyFinance.

So I finally got around activating my beta Google Voice account.  I really didn’t have much of an idea of what it was before I signed up.

After you log in, the first thing it asks is for you to pick a phone number.  The phone number wizard allows you to pick a number based on area code or zipcode (geographically this will offer you a number that looks familiar to you).  In my case they had both 321 numbers and 407 numbers (both Central Florida area codes).

But, the cooler part is that you can type in a word and it will automatically find numbers that match your word.   I typed in “DIGGZ” and found myself a nice little Los Angeles 323 number … 323-96-DIGGZ.

So you get your number and then you have to map it to an existing phone number.  I mapped it to my existing cell phone, but I imagine you can use just about any number, Skype, Vonage or even a traditional land line.  But you probably want to map it to a phone that has SMS capabilities, because that’s one of the cooler features of Google Voice.

Once you map the number, Google Voice called my cell phone.  When I answered it prompted me for a 2 digit security number (presumably so you can’t just map it to some stranger’s phone without their permission).  Then it prompts you to record your name and a standard voicemail greeting.

Now what?

The Google Voice Interface looks a lot like GMail’s interface.  Inbound calls to my Google Voice Number are routed to my cell phone (you have the option of having it show the CallerID of the caller or your Google Voice Number when you receive a call).   I can also turn off the call routing and just have calls go directly to the Google Voice Voicemail box…the messages are accessible via the web interface or a phone interface (mobile web browsers too).

You can make outbound calls via the web interface as well, simply by putting the in number you wish to call and your phone will ring as Google Voice attempts to connect the call.

It appears that calls inside the US are free.  You can make international calls cheaply but you have to put money in your Google Voice account via Google Checkout. (Minimum is $10)

You can also send and receive SMS text messages via the web interface (this also appears to be free…but you still get charged your normal SMS text messaging charges through your cell phone carrier), and these are forwarded to my cell phone as well.

I created the above button in my account…they seem to be encouraging this type of behavior.  I’m not sure how I would actually use this, but it’s interesting.

So what does it all mean?  Why do I need this?  How is it making my life easier?

I don’t have an answer to that.  Obviously Google is trying to own yet another version of your identity…in this case your phone number.  Once they have that, then presumably they can start selling ads.   But will I use it?  I don’t know.  Yet.   Try giving me a call…we’ll see how this thing works together.