Google Buzzes Facebooks territory

Facebook’s chokehold on the social network sector may be about to be challenged from the major player of the internet; Google. Google have launched a new service called Google Buzz, seemingly a halfway house between Facebook and Twitter in its pitch and very heavily integrated with other Google services.

Buzz creates the ability to follow and be followed by people in your Gmail contacts. Posts can be replied to or commented on, much like status updates in Facebook, with friends of friends being able to read your comments. If a Buzz post is public it will be indexed instantly and show up on Google’s realtime results.

This is all very like Facebook, and not far off from Twitter either, but here is where it gets interesting:

Integration with parts of Google’s search algorithm also means that should you Buzz about a particular and distinct subject then Google can suggest Public posts that you may wish to read, and one assumes ask to be a follower of that person.

Google have also added in a locations manager to Buzz that will allow you to say where you are when you post. While this may not be immediately of interest it probably does factor into the suggestions algorithm, something which this blogger would be betting is going to become a far more central part of the Buzz experience.

There has been a lot of questioning of whether Buzz will usurp Facebook as king of the social network, or if it will fail but there is every chance that Facebook and Google Buzz can sit side by side and aim at different markets. Part of Facebook’s appeal is that you can decide what happens to your data, and who becomes your friend or not. Buzz may make this process far more localised but also far more subject based. Either way we will be watching Buzz and the success of those who patronise this new social networking tool, very carefully in the months to come.

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