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Posted by sam on June 2nd, 2010 View Comments
Posted in Social Media, Social Network |

Social networking sites are the newest, and by far the fastest, way in reaching people all over the world. The importance that the role of social networking sites play in people’s everyday lives have made it imperative for web developers and businesses to capitalize and find ways to utilize social media to their advantage. Social networking sites such as MySpace, Facebook, Flickr—and most recently Twitter—have tapped into the advertising game in the hopes of making more profit our of their very popular domains. Search engine optimization has reached a whole new level now that social networking has come into play.

Google, one of the world’s biggest and most recognizable companies and also one of search engine optimization’s biggest players, has recently launched its own brand of social networking that is sure to be a major player in the market in time. In February, Google launched Google Buzz; a social networking feature embedded within Google’s mailing service, the Gmail. Google Buzz combines the social networking functions found in popular sites such as Twitter and Facebook in addition to the mailing service that Gmail provides. Dubbed as the brand’s “Twitter killer”, Google Buzz needs no set-up and automatically adds Gmail contacts to its “Friends” page.

Key Features Google Buzz is pretty much the same format as other social networking web sites that have been around. But Google, looking to stay ahead of the social networking game have added features to their site that would differentiate it and give it advantage over its rival websites. These key features include:

1. Automated Friends List: While in Facebook or Twitter you would have to search for the names or emails of your friends before you can add them to your friends’ list, Google Buzz allows you to automatically add your emailing contacts into your friends’ list. Contacts can follow your page without them needing to search for you or your email address. Same goes to the friends you are following, Google will determine or single out those email addresses that you frequently communicate with and immediately update you the latest on your friends’ own Buzz pages.
2. Fast Sharing of Updates, Photos, Videos, etc. Google Buzz combines sources like Picassa and Twitter into a single RSS feed. This enables the user to get updated about their multiple accounts whenever they want without needing to open a new browser window or tab.
3. Public or Private sharing is made easier. People can swap files, images or even videos with relatives and contacts very easily through Google Buzz. With Gmail’s functionality embedded within Google Buzz, file sharing can be done within a single click without wasting so much time uploading or tagging the files.
4. Integration of Updates Instead of having to send you emails one by one with regards to the updates that you have on your account, Google Buzz enables your inbox to continuously post updates of a thread in one single email.
5. The Recommended Buzz This puts updates of people who are not in your friends list. The Recommended Buzz shows you the friends of your friends, people you may know or may not know but you may be interested in making an acquaintance. These recommendations take note of how you respond to the Recommendations thus constantly improving on the people that they recommend.

Advantages over Other Social Networking Sites Though it seems that Google Buzz is eerily similar to other more popular social networking sites in terms of the overall function and usage, there are slight advantages that Google has worked on to ensure that they have competitive edge over more popular sites such as Facebook and Twitter.

1. Longer Posts for Users First, Google Buzz, unlike Twitter, allows longer posts and messages. Twitter only has certain amount of characters that its users can dispose of in their tweets. In the Buzz, messages and posts are longer but not to the point that users can write entire paragraphs and still be able to post these on their pages.
2. Organized Updates While the layout of its comments and replying function is very much like that of Facebook, Google Buzz has an advantage on showing its users automatic updates or new replies even from older posts. Unlike Facebook, when some of your contacts in Google Buzz reply to an old post that you had on your page, that message automatically shows up on the top of your updates, making it easier for you to read new comments even from posts you did yesterday or a week ago.
3. Instant Set-up Also, there is no need to set up a separate account to participate in Google Buzz. Once you have your Gmail account and you click on the link that directs you to your Google Buzz page, everything is already set up there. All of your friends who have begun using Google Buzz will be there together with their updates and posts. Importing files from other social networking sites is also easier, making the Buzz a one-stop site for everything about your social networking accounts.
4. Recommends Interesting Posts Google Buzz also has this very handy function wherein it posts its recommended updates from your contacts and weeds out updates that you may not like or pay attention to. This enables users to easily skip posts that they wouldn’t be interested in.
5. Link Previews Another upgrade from the traditional social networking is the URL preview function that Google Buzz provides. When posting certain URLs of websites for example, followers are given a preview of what the website looks like because Google extracts images and other important stuff from that website and shows them in the user’s post. This makes it easier on the part of the follower whether to click and be directed to the posted page or not.
6. Email Functionality Google Buzz is basically email combined with social networking. The service provides a very handy way of social networking while still being able to function as an email account all at the same time. Users can directly use their Gmail and send email to whomever without leaving their Buzz pages. It needs no new tabs or windows because everything (email, posts, updates, etc) is conveniently rolled into one.
7. Upgraded Mobile Capability When users access their Google accounts on your mobile phones and update your status on Google Buzz, the service automatically sets their location and enables friends to know where exactly they are at the time of the posts. This function is called Foursquare and this has been one of the advantages that Google Buzz has over its direct competitors.

Developments and Updates with regards to Google Buzz When it was released a couple of months back, Google Buzz generated so much speculation and anticipation as it was thought to be the giant brand’s way of taking down Facebook, Twitter and other juggernauts in the social networking arena. With this kind of attention following its release, many people opined that Facebook and other sites’ days are numbered while other voice out the opposite. Many people have said that Google Buzz hit the mother lode when it integrated Gmail’s emailing functionality to social networking. They believed that this was the main advantage the Buzz has over its rival websites.

Others, though, have disagreed and said that Google is already too late in the social networking game. Others commented that the privacy matters that plagued Google Buzz in its early days will prove to be a serious impediment to the service’s popularity ratings. Early users of the service ran afoul of a privacy flaw: frequent email correspondents showed up on their friends list and could view updates. Buzz developers tackled this problem immediately by allowing users to include who they want to in their friends’ list and exclude those that are for emailing and contacting purposes only. Google has also considered the option of releasing Buzz as a separate application, allowing users to have different Buzz and Gmail accounts. The company, however, will have to think of a whole new strategy of introducing this separate Google Buzz in the social networking market.

Google Buzz Buzzing For now, it seems like majority of Google users are enjoying everything new that Google Buzz offers. With every function brought together in one place, it’s not that hard to see why many users have grown to like this new social networking media so much. Within three days, Google Buzz has already tallied more than 9 million posts with an average of 160,000 “buzzes” per hour. With this kind of showing, Google Buzz will soon be a major player and will be staying in for the long haul.

Tags: Google Buzz, link building company, link building service, link popularity, Paid Link Building, smo, social media optimization

This entry was posted on Wednesday, June 2nd, 2010 at 9:00 am and is filed under Social Media, Social Network. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.