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