Is There Anyone New to Find on Google Buzz?
I don't know anyone worth adding into my personal social mediasphere left in my Gmail address book who isn't a total luddite living life without a cell phone, bank card, or voicemail. Do I really want to try and add these people to my Buzz network? Do you?
Now that Google has fixed some of the most egregious privacy issues present when Google Buzz first launched last week, I've let my account go live and started taking the new social-media service out for a spin. It's a service with potential, but I'm questioning whether that potential really lies in Gmail's enormous user base, from which Buzz draws its pool of potential buzzers, as some surmise.
Why? Because there's no one in my Gmail address book whom I want to follow in the social mediasphere to whom I am not already connected via Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn. My contacts are in my address book because I already have a history of contacting them. And since that's the case, it's a no-brainer to assume I've already sidled up to them via an appropriate social media platform--Facebook for my inner circle, Twitter for the suburbs of same, and LinkedIn for my colleagues and potential employers.
Who's left to connect with for the first time on Buzz? And what value would my existing connections get from following me on Buzz versus the services where they already connect with me?
As for the first question, I don't know anyone worth adding into my personal social mediasphere who's left in my Gmail records. Well, not anyone who isn't a total luddite living life without a cell phone, bank card, or voicemail who probably only created their Gmail account in order to complain to their favorite store that they stopped taking paper checks. Do I really want to try and add these people to my network? Do you?
Second, like most others out there, I've connected all my existing blog and social-media accounts that Google will let me connect to Buzz. So no one will be reading on Buzz anything from me that doesn't already appear elsewhere. That's as it should me. You can't import Buzz updates into Twitter or Facebook, so why would I make Buzz my primary social-media platform right now?
I think the real value in Buzz lies in the ability for users to send updates that are longer than 140 characters (seriously, Twitter, it's time), browse conversations by thread, and use multimedia content. But none of that is innovate and all of it appears elsewhere in the social mediasphere.
So I'll keep playing with Buzz for the novelty of it. But if anyone else can suggest what the killer feature of this service is, I'm all ears.
