Q&A: Google Buzz - Just another Facebook replica?

Earlier this week, Internet superpower Google launched Buzz, a social networking site set to rival the likes of Facebook and Twitter. Like Facebook, users can post status updates, upload photos and videos, comment on friends’ posts and more. Buzz is incorporated into Gmail, meaning users’ friends are automatically added into their Buzz friends list, allowing instant and easy communication with those they know best.

So what does Google Buzz offer?

Google Buzz is arguably a replica of Facebook in the way that users can post status updates, upload and view photos and videos as well as offering a chat feature to communicate to your peers. Like Facebook, users can also ‘like’ posts, with notifications appearing in users’ inboxes every time a friend comments on their posts.

So basically, Google Buzz IS Facebook?

Not quite. Google Buzz has several features that distinguish it from the hugely-competitive social networking crowd. Posts can be recommended to a friend at the click of a button – so, for example, if a friends’ friend was selling tickets to a football match to the team you support, the friend could recommend the post to you to buy the tickets.

I have quite an active lifestyle, and don’t have much time for accessing a computer. Is there a way around this?

You’re in luck. Google Buzz has been designed with the mobile community in mind, meaning the application – and all aforementioned features – can be accessed anywhere, anytime. Google Buzz uses the GPS signal of your mobile phone to detect your current location, meaning that status updates or posts – yours or your friend’s – can be tracked to where you currently are. A breach of privacy perhaps, yet handy when you’re out and about socialising.

So you’re saying I can be tracked 24/7?

Not necessarily. Mobile users can choose to tag their current locations whilst posting – a feature that can be turned on and off. This can also then be published publicly (globally) or privately (between you and your peers). There’s also an option to view public posts nearby to your current location so, theoretically, you could enter a coffee shop and read a stranger’s Buzz status update reviewing the coffee they had just bought.

I’m getting the impression my privacy is going to be destroyed by Buzz. How can I control this?

Simply put, don’t post anything you feel is personal, causing uncomfort if a stranger were to read it. Google Buzz offers a feature whereupon users can choose who they post their status updates to though, meaning that user posts can be seen by either friends or anyone. Sure, Facebook does this too, yet the process is far more complicated for the average computer user.

I’ve never really been a fan of constant interaction – I prefer Twitter. Is there a way to simply ‘tweet’?

Tweets in essence are simply status updates, with Twitter arguably a simplified version of Facebook and Buzz. Luckily, the guys at Buzz have created a way to integrate your Twitter activity into your Buzz account. Using Gmail, anything users ‘tweet’ on Twitter will automatically be published onto Buzz too. Furthermore, the same applies for any activity on Picasa, Flickr and Google Reader – enabling both text and image uploads with minimal fuss.

Haven’t Google already tried, and failed, to break into the social networking scene?

Yep. In 2004, Google released an application called Orkut – a similar concept to the earlier versions of Facebook, with the same aims as Buzz currently. However, the program only stirred a craze in Brazil and India, and has since become virtually non-existant compared to the dominant status of the mighty Facebook.

Surely, therefore, Google doesn’t stand a chance in such a competitve and dominant market?

Maybe so. Yahoo! launched a social networking site similar to Google Buzz over a year ago with limited success, whilst Microsoft have also claimed that there is no need for anymore social networking sites. The incorporation of applications such as Picasa (owned by Google) and Twitter onto Google Buzz will no doubt benefit both initial attraction and company success, and with Google constantly coming up with new ideas in an ever-changing virtual world – including Google Maps and the newly launched Android and Google Chrome operating systems – the only way seems to be up for the super-powerful internet-based company.