Google Buzz to compete with Facebook, Twitter supremacy

Google Inc, the search giant has introduced a new social feature on February 9, called Google Buzz, which is integrated with the company’s web-based email services, Gmail. With the new feature, users can share links and messages show up in the user's inbox. It integrates pictures, videos, and links as the part of the "conversations" aspects of Gmail like conversation threading.

However, Google is presenting the app as an enterprise tool and will challenge Facebook and Twitter. But, there are lots of security and privacy concerns related to social networking and also with ‘Buzz’. According to various analysts, Buzz is the combination of good ideas and bad implementation and therefore requires refining before it can be a serious competitor in the world of Twitter and Facebook.

Here, the feature discusses about the features of the app and criticize for its loopholes.

Google Buzz: Features

If you log into Gmail, you will be welcomed with a splash page introducing Google Buzz. The new app comes with auto-following, rich & fast sharing experience, public & private sharing, inbox integration and offers links to websites and their contents like Picasa and Flickr.

Google Buzz presents thumbnails of pictures from sites like Picasa and Flickr. Users can easily browse and watch the images and other messages. Further, the app uses similar keyboard shortcuts as Gmail. Users can mark public and private settings for different posts or can even post updates to specific contact groups.

Picasa, Flickr, Google Reader, YouTube, Blogger, and Twitter are presently integrated in the Buzz.

Mobile versions

Users can access buzz on their mobile through three ways, which include Google Mobile’s website directly, Buzz.Google.com (iPhone and Android) and Google Mobile Maps. Users can also report the present location of the user. However, unlike Google latitude, it does not permit users to manually specify an arbitrary location. In the app, users can posts text messages as well as upload pictures through their mobile, which should have support of Android 2.0+, iPhone/iPod Touch, Windows Mobile, and S60 platform.

Recent criticism: Privacy issues

Google Buzz has created a buzz in the market with its commanding social features. The company has already running a social website, called Orkut, which is quite successful in Brazil and India. But, the Buzz has invited a lot of complains from the users who did not like the idea of sharing contacts with other users.

Initially, the app discloses all the Gmail contacts by default and also showed how frequently a person emailed someone else or chatted with. Through the feature, users could reveal their sensitive information to others unknowingly. Further, it is suggested that people would know the user's exact location when they post a message to the service via their mobile.

Google addresses the issues

It is reported that Google is planning to offer the stand-alone version for Buzz. Now users would be able to make use of Buzz without integrating it into the mailing solution, Gmail. Now onwards, the company added that there would be no auto-following, but it will merely suggest people you could follow, what it calls auto-suggest. The move comes as a breather for those who were fighting for the privacy concerns.