Bring the Noise. Why google Buzz will Fail.

Februar 11th, 2010 • Social, Social Business

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Two days ago google announced google Buzz, a new socialnetworky add-on to its well known and beloved gmail service. As expected, google is trying once more to advance into enemy territory – social networking. Since its foundation the company is great in search and media but it sucks big time when it comes to content and real, human interactions.

So, yesterday morning I found this google Buzz Button in my gmail account. And what I saw next was nice but two years too late.

One day with google Buzz

google Buzz tries to do anything at once and doesn’t do anything really good. Basically it’s a mixture of twitter, Facebook, Friendfeed and Foursquare. That does not sound too bad, unfortunately I have no idea where google is in this concept.

Apart from the lack in own, new ideas the first finding is – the UX is horrible. Years ago google was on the forefront of UX design. But google Buzz almost looks like google Wave light. Do you remember google Wave? Sure you do (I have 1 gazillion invites left if you like). In short, google Buzz combines at least four specialized interoperable social services in one shitty interface, spices it up with even worse than ususal privacy flaws, integrates it into gmail an calls it Buzz.

Why it will fail

Nothwithstanding its lack in originality, I even like the idea somehow. It feels like the hybrid it is supposed to be. And apart from the shitty user experience, the way you interact with people is somehow different to what we know. Location based information is integrated pretty well and I also enjoy the close proximity to google Reader and gmail. What I really, really, really hate is one thing: google Buzz wants to be its own beast! It is not intertwined with twitter or Facebook. It wants to rule the world by copying other services and by pulling the masses from gmail to Buzz. That will not only fail, for me personally it’s a kill criterion.

Why? Because google Buzz increases the overall noise and does not come handy with the services I use for years. Plus, it does not offer any added value that it has to offer to make me leave my 1,400 followers on twitter. Why should I? I do not tend to agree with Microsoft very often but yesterday they slammed google Buzz with the following words: “Busy people don’t want another social network, what they want is the convenience of aggregation.” I couldn’t agree more (don’t read the rest of the Microsoft statement). Just because there is not too much that google can aggregate from their own social network platforms, I can’t see a reason to build another network to aggregate it afterwards in social search. Because that is the idea behind Buzz.

No, it won’t work with Facebook

google Buzz after google Wave might be the second fail of google after another. google seems to get nervous. What was once a very fast moving driver of innovation has now severe problems to catch with Social. My prophecy: People will be buzzing around buzz for 1 more week. Afterwards it will be populated by a small number of nerds who keep on proclaiming the superiority of google Buzz over Twitter and Facebook (think Usenet). In short: google’s concept to create its own Super Social Network will fail. Simply because users won’t switch services just to support google in its war with Facebook. They just don’t care. And google did not give them any reason to change their minds. Two years ago it would have been a killer app. But not today.

In his article “Facebook will centralize the web” Steve Rubel made a couple of noteworthy claims on the actual background behind this tool (even though google Buzz did not exist at this point in time):

Google will continue to dominate “pull.” But Facebook will aggregate content, make it social and rule “push.” Using our social circle it will surface content that we care about just when we want it – and allow us to comment on it all. As more people use Facebook to connect, share and create, a network effect takes over – and the system get even smarter.

This is in fact what it is all about. Only days after Facebook’s announcement that it now serves 400 million users worldwide + 100 million mobile google launches Buzz. google is afraid that its tradtional search engine business will be replaced by social aggregation soon. After integrating a social search concept into its results, it now needs full control of its own social network to keep on growing in this area – a market which is controlled by its big adversary Facebook. It’s not a surprise that google Buzz does not come with a Facebook API – it wants to become Facebook to stay relevant as a search engine in the future. Call it an epical fight. Anyway, I am sure the google Buzz battle is getting lost.

What do you think? Tell me about your first experiences with google Buzz. Do you like it? Where do you see it might go? Do you see chances it might succeed? I am happy to read about it.

Tags: Brands, Business, Facebook, google, google Buzz, google wave, Social Networks, Strategy, Tech, Trends, Twitter, World

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Pingback: Interessante Artikel zu Google Buzz « Johannes Kleske – tautoko weblog
http://twitter.com/burning_star Christian B

I agree. Even though I'm a big fan of the GMail web interface and extensions for it like RTM I don't see an added value for me at this point.
A well integrated interface in the GMail web app to organize social apps would be neat, but at the moment (at least my Buzz) is only partially duplicating content – which is probably the worst things to do.

But hey, it's only 24hrs old – maybe it will become better.
http://twitter.com/jkleske Johannes Kleske

“Because google Buzz increases the overall noise and does not come handy with the services I use for years.”

Didn't we all say the same thing about Twitter? Not that I would bet money on Buzz being the NBT (next big thing) but I would be careful to dismiss it after one day.
ghensel

Right. We said the same thing about twitter. And maybe it can can even become a challenger to twitter. But it won't become a real threat to Facebook. And that is what it needs to be to fulfill its (very likely) objective…which is to become the NBT.
http://twitter.com/igorschwarzmann Igor Schwarzmann

I have to agree with Johannes: Condemning a service – especially by Google – to failure after one day is a bit premature. That said, I do agree that Google Buzz isn't reducing noise, but actually increased that in a very unproductive way. But that's something that can be solved either by UI changes or by different clients.

As for challenging Facebook: Google and Facebook aren't alike. Google is all about decentralization, while Facebook is trying to be the centralized platform. It almost seems like they want to be the a Internet in the Internet.

They – Facebook – are sure as hell successful with that, but a decentralized system seems to be the more sustainable approach. At least on the Internet. Facebook is aware of that and that's one of the reason why they have opened up user profiles for syndication by search engines.
ghensel

It is premature. And the problem is, I even like it. My point is, it won't get the critical mass necessary to become a serious player. But maybe I am wrong. We will see.
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Daniel W

I'd take one of your 1 gazillion invites …. good article btw
FalkeX

At first I more or less completly agreed but then I realized that for once I actualy have my own opinion on this. Because one thing is not mentioned in this article at all. New Users like me. I've been asked to create a facebook account several times by people I wanted to stay in contact with. But that's a huge leap for me. My guts beging to creawl just thinking about Web2.0. I even went there once and tried to make a profile. I didn't get it… The most used and probably easiest applicatoon on the web right now and I looked at it and had no idea how it works. I left without tryiing to figure it out. Now Google Buzz is another story enitrely. I alreay have Gmail accunt and it is the best thing since cake. I already uses Google docs (or “used” before I just used teamviewer to store my stuff at home). It's familar territory. I just have to press the Buzz link. I think I'd use that. I have no idea if that means it won't fail but I think it's worth considering then judgeing the use of it.
ghensel

Thanks for your comment. And you are right: I did not mention the (sorry) late adopters. What surprises me is, most people say that they have a very hard time understanding google Buzz. And I have never heard anybody complaining about Facebook. So, your point is – what you like most about google Buzz is the low access barrier. Simply because it is intertwined with gmail?

That would be interesting. What were your experiences with Buzz so far?
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I am using Google Buzz and I must say it is really very useful.
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