Thursday, February 11, 2010

Video Killed the Radio Star


So Google Buzz has made its appearance. Touted as "one part Facebook, one part Twitter, one part YouTube and one part Flickr," many seem to think that Google Buzz is out to get Twitter and Facebook. I think that's a bit harsh. Google just wants its share of the market. The Droid phones look surprisingly like the iPhones but I don't see anyone freaked out that Verizon(HTC) is trying to push AT&T(Apple) out of the market. Matter of fact, it seemed to be expected that Verizon would find something to draw people away from the iPhone. I don't even remember there being this much outrage when facebook killed myspace.

So the pros.
1 - it automatically loads all of your google contacts as contacts for you.
2 - it puts up your google photo, no uploading.
3 - it constantly runs in g-mail, so you can keep both things open at once, in one window!
4 - there's no annoying character limitation as with twitter
5 - it's something new to try, and new procrastinations are always welcome in my life
6 - when people are "buzzing" it makes me think they've thrown precaution and work to the wind and are daytime drinking. this makes me giggle.

And the cons.
1 - the automatic follow thing, not so cool if you've ever e-mailed a boss from your personal e-mail
2 - it broadcasts your location to the world, "buzzing" at work - your boss now knows, "buzzing" from your phone from a sporting event on a day you called out of work - double bad news
3 - the order in which things update is confusing ... there's no "most recent" vs "most popular" as there is in facebook
4 - it's a little harder to figure out how to change your settings than the rest of google's products
5 - it apparently can grab photos from your phone without you uploading them. this can be disastrous, especially if you taken drunken phone photos
6 - it's getting kinda spammy with all the e-mails it sends me, I can see the buzz notifications right alongside my inbox, no need to e-mail me too google
7 - I still prefer facebook's ability to write on people's "wall" and such

All in all, I'm gonna give it a go. I'm a social person, I like social networks, I also like new technologies. And hey, it may lure me away from twitter for good. Because it looks more twitter-ish than facebook, and more interesting than twitter too.

Well that's me, anyone else have pros & cons to add?

8 comments:

  1. i'm scared of it - it seems too stalkerish for me. i don't want people knowing what i'm up to. plus, i've tried to block people from gmail before and i think i saw them "following" me on gmail still - under buzz. let me know how it goes - for now, i shut it off.

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  2. Rita, the thing is not only do you have to block people from google, you then have to block them separately under Buzz... I suppose that should go on the cons, huh?

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  3. i've to agree with the automatic following thing! :) you've got nice blogs btw. :)

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  4. yeah, i don't want everyone to know where i am or what i'm doing ... you know, sometimes you just want to avoid someone. i like being in control of who know certain things. but let us know more...maybe when you learn more about it, you can figure on how to set info. filters of something like that.

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  5. I like your sense of humor....nice blog!

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  6. I just activated it,but for my 'no contact' account....:D
    HI Mae,i've ki$$ed them....(the ads,of course)

    ReplyDelete
  7. Best Regards

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    ReplyDelete
  8. I develop wordpress plugin WP-Buzz. You can test and add pros & cons to me.
    Thanks.Have you ever been to Taiwan?

    ReplyDelete

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