Many of you avid Gmail users such as myself may have recently noticed a new ‘Buzz’ link on Gmail. Well in all honestly I was a little late at finding out because I’m always logged into Gmail and not until I was forced to log out (Gmail addict!) for a Firefox restart did I see the new link .
Buzz is Google’s new entrant into the social media space and unlike Orkut/Google Friend Connect, Buzz gained instant traction (albeit a few privacy hiccups) among its already existing and faithful Gmail community.
I’m not going to go through a feature list or comparison with Facebook/Twitter here, you can read more about that on mashable. I want to comment on is what this means for us mortals in the real world. Buzz will mean more time on Gmail… obviously Google wants that, but its also means that we now also have to track friends and their status’ on Buzz. Aren’t we doing enough of that on Facebook and Twitter already? Because of the simplicity and ease of use of Buzz a lot of users will get convinced to start Buzzing on Buzz, which in turn will mean less time you spend on Facebook, Twitter etc or working (whichever you do more of). We do after all only have 16-18 awake hours in a day and everyone is fighting for your time on their service.
Businesses have an even harder challenge since they now cannot ignore Buzz and so they have add it to their social media marketing strategy (if they have one). The vast majority of businesses are no where close to having a social media marketing strategy and a new entrant into this space makes it an even more confusing, expensive and daunting task. One set of businesses however will really benefit, the companies offering social media marketing services for others. They just got more money handed to them.
What are your thoughts on Buzz? How has it impacted your time on social media sites? Please comment.
Cross listed here.
