Google Buzz…Okay?

Google Buzz…for those of you that don’t know Google Buzz was released on February 9, 2010 (the day this post is published) and is, simply put, a social networking tools such as link sharing and status updates through G-mail. It is virtually a social network integrated with G-mail. I tried Google Buzz today, and my first reaction is: Why?

Right now we’ve got virtually two social networks worth their salt, Twitter and Facebook (No, MySpace died in 2003). I’m a twitter guy myself but facebook is fine too, so why would we want another one that does the EXACT same thing as twitter integrated in G-mail? I see no point, literally no point at all. It offers no originality and offers nothing that is not offered by others. Another important point, is that while you should be using G-mail, not everyone does. I actually use Google Apps myself for my email. And to use Google Buzz, you must have a G-mail account, and if you want to use buzz but don’t have a G-mail account you have to create one and have buzz be one tab in all the G-mail features. Now maybe Buzz isn’t meant to compete with Twitter and Facebook and be its own social network, but why then does it exist? Does it really offer anything and if so, why does anyone care about this at all? Why is Google hyping it? Sounds more like a new Google Labs app to me, but this is getting the whole tech world’s attention. It seems to me that the big players online are trying to be all in one. Google Mail goes social, The Facebook social network is rumored to be starting their own web mail (consider the source: TechCrunch). I think web apps these days should have their own niche and excel in it beyond all others and offer something new to users. Do you agree or disagree? Comments are always welcome! Regardless of my opinion, Buzz is taking up quite large amounts of popularity so I will use it periodically and more if it gains more popularity. Follow me: http://www.google.com/profiles/benkulbertis