Any niche that Google moves into should be cause for at least some concern for the incumbent companies. Despite the logic underlying that statement, I don’t think Facebook or Twitter are in any danger of being overtaken any time soon by Google Buzz.
I expressed as much last week upon the initial release of the product, and little has changed to put me in Google’s camp on this one. In fact, the really lame posts from my Buzz friends so far have probably further repelled me. There was a time a few days in that it looked like the quality of posts from my Buzz friends would be superior to Facebook or Twitter. No longer. So far, the vast majority have been from people I’ve either blocked from showing up on my Facebook feed, or from people I don’t know and can’t figure out why I was automatically following in Buzz.
I will grant that photo and video sharing in Buzz are superior to either Facebook or Twitter. Facebook is actually a pretty poor platform for sharing pictures of any great interest, due to size and speed limitations. It’s mostly a nice way to get people to know the pictures exist, but if they want a closer look, the images will have to be available elsewhere. This photo/video sharing aspect could actually help me find a use for Buzz.
However, in my brief encounters with my Buzz feed, I’m already feeling the itch to be able to shape and control what shows up there, and with just brief encounters with Buzz, I don’t see a way to filter it. If I have to un-follow someone to block them from showing up in Buzz, that’s a total dealbreaker.
If Google doesn’t make it possible for me to easily set more granular filter settings in Buzz, they may as well change the “Buzz” label to “Spam”.
P.S. I really love Jason’s art in this. The colors are amazing and the Twitter bird actually made me laugh out loud when I saw him/her (does the Twitter bird have a gender?)
_Jake
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