Left: Inline with the Google style guide of primary colors, Google launches a new logo for Google Buzz, using familiar “chat bubble” iconology.
Google launches status update features
Google launches Buzz, which many will find similar to Friendfeed now part of the Facebook family. Google Buzz will enable content to be aggregated, and then prioritized based upon the people you already email with, which Harry McCracken and I call this a social graph based on history, “Historical social graph” or HSG. Secondly, this Google Buzz feature will rate and rank content based on activity and interaction within your social group. Users can choose to publish the Buzz in public, which will display on the Google Profile page. They also announced the ability to input this data from mobile devices and showed a voice to text scenario. They plan to make more announcements based on enterprise versions –and more at their IO developer conference.
Enough about news, I’m sure you’ll find more on Techmeme, here are my insights.
Analysis: Impacts To Industry
- Google continues its prime directive. At the high level, this is a strong move for Google, they continue to aggregate other people’s social content, and become the intermediatry. This helps them to suck in Twitter, Flickr, and any-other-data type as the APIs open up, giving them more to ‘organize’. This is Google acting on it’s mission to the world.
- Privacy woes will scare consumers –yet adoption will continues upward. For consumers, the risk of privacy will continue to be at top of mind. Although the features allow for sharing only with friends or in public. expect more consumer groups to express concern. Overtime, this will become moot as the next generation of consumers continues to share in public.
- Buzz could have faster adoption rate than Twitter. For consumers, this could potentially have more adoption than Twitter as Gmail has a large footprint Google told me it’s tens of millions (active monthly unique). Of course, most Gmail users likely aren’t Twitter users, but there could be a large platform to draw from.
- Physical businesses lose more control over search strategy. For small busineses and retailers, this will impact their search engine results pages, as a single top ‘buzzer’ could cause their content to be very relevant, if that person was relevant, then their influential content could show at top of SERP pages. Expect Google to continue to offer advertising options now around buzz content –fueling their revenues.
- A direct blow to Facebook, they must accelerate go to market. To Facebook, this is a direct threat, these features emulate Friendfeed and the recently designed Facebook newsfeed. Expect Google to incorporporate Facebook connect, commoditizing Facebook data as it gets sucked into Google and displayed on Google SERP.
- Great for Twitter now –yet painful in the long term. This is good for Twitter in the short term, as it’ll amplify tweets, and suck them into a new system and give additional reach. Yet over time, status features will become a commodity, and Twitter as a destination will fade into the background.
Back in July 2009, I took a bold statement to say that Email and Social Networks are the same, I distinctly recall a lot of people disagreeing with this notion, but I think it became true today. Posted from the Googleplex at the live briefing, I also spoke to NYT, SF Chronicle, SJ Mercury, NYT (second time), UPI, and Financial Times. Also, I polished some of the writing up in the afternoon, as the first pass was quick and dirty.
I might be the only one who thinks this, but in my opinion, Android is the secret sauce that makes all of this work. As Android phones get released and consumers slip them in their pockets, which social apps do you think will work most seamlessly with the phone and the rest of its native apps? My guess Gmail and Google Buzz. And as mobile devices overtake computers as the device of choice for internet use, this gives Google a massive competitive advantage I think.
Thanks for the recap Jeremiah.
To your point on effects in the SERPs, I was at a session at Google in Boston last Friday on the Future of search where they highlighted their direction in Friend-Augmented Search – which will personalize the SERPs based on the behavior (Click-thru on certain results, etc.) of the user's social graph (albeit, likely the behavior of others in your social circle who opt in to it from their Google Profile). Therefore, not only will important “tweeters” impact a businesses brand in the SERPs, but increasingly one size will not fit all. In other words, more and more dimensions will impact the presence of a business or brand in the SERPs, including multiple kinds of social aspects – including the opinions of the searchers closest friends and colleagues.
Businesses that create fans and evangelists will likely have a better rank and more positive content displaying in their brand related search results.
Does it make sense for Google to buy Posterous? Seems like the technology would be perfect for streamlining the world of status/content updates. Not that Google can't built the same technology, but it would be bringing in an audience of extremely passionate users.
Sounds like 2010 is shaping up to apply social media strategies that 2009 prepped everyone to understand. It's about time Google and Facebook go head to head, with Twitter in between.
Jeremiah, how do you think this will fit in with Google Social Search?
Great analysis Jeremiah. I especially liked your point about how small businesses could use this to boost their search results by landing a top 'buzzer.' Interesting idea…
Thanks for this analysis, I've been trying to really pin down the “why” google did this, and I think this is it. I'm also excited about the possibilities for small business use, Buzz is going to prove to be a very powerful part of the social media world.
Jeremiah-
I agree with your analysis of Email & social being the same. Your most trusted contacts are in your email list, and this an email address/list is usually a starting point for expanding your network in social spaces. It only makes sense that the two would merge. I really think Google is putting Facebook in it's cross-hairs. I'm really anxious to see how Buzz influences organic search.
One thing for sure is that buzz will give Google more insight into consumer behavior, and more specific targets for advertisers.
Plus, this will definitely help them improve the real-time search results they can deliver. They already pull some info from Twitter for real-time search, so adding more data to the real-time stream from Buzz could help improve this search channel as well. And as that improves, I think there will be less and less opportunity for people to game Google's search engine, instead your results will be influenced by your social network, browsing history, location etc. and less on other traditional long-standing ranking factors.
Exciting times for sure!
Great post Jeremiah–
My mind is filled with ideas of course, but the one that keeps yelling the loudest is how far Buzz will lower the social web's barrier to entry for everyone who isn't “tech-savvy”, let alone an early adopter.
Take my MIL for instance. She just joined Facebook and like many people, gives me the blank stare of death whenever I start “geeking out on her”. How nice it will be to tell her to just create a Google profile and click on the Buzz icon in her email nav? Once people see and feel the pulse of social media, they usually get it. Teaching them to tweet and what an RT is seems to be the hard part.
Great post Jeremiah–
My mind is filled with ideas of course, but the one that keeps yelling the loudest is how far Buzz will lower the social web's barrier to entry for everyone who isn't “tech-savvy”, let alone an early adopter.
Take my MIL for instance. She just joined Facebook and like many people, gives me the blank stare of death whenever I start “geeking out on her”. How nice it will be to tell her to just create a Google profile and click on the Buzz icon in her email nav? Once people see and feel the pulse of social media, they usually get it. Teaching them to tweet and what an RT is seems to be the hard part.
I guess I come from the opposite side, because I do not see email and social networks as the same, not at all. I see them as different contacts silos with different use cases. The fact that Google is doing this gets my attention. Yahoo and MSN are too far outside of my online life to be useful this way. But on the other hand, I'm still not sure that I'll find Buzz useful or helpful or just a PITA.
Don't see any evidence as to why this would be true… “For consumers, this could potentially have more adoption than Twitter as Gmail has a large footprint Google told me it™s tens of millions (active monthly unique). Of course, most Gmail users likely aren™t Twitter users, but there could be a large platform to draw from.”
Interesting that Google is so late to this game – considering the early lead they COULD have had via Orkut, and aggregation via iGoogle. SideWiki appears to be another also ran – too late, and hidden to the vast majority of users, of course that's still relatively early in it's release/adoption as well.
BTW – social networks exist independently of specific channels, and they don't have to be communications based. There are plenty of social networks, for example many different groups of buyers on Amazon, that are not connected or “friending” each other per se, yet still make up social networks – connected by common interests and behaviors.
Thanks Jeremiah,
You were spot on about email and social networks. This knock out battle between Facebook and Google is a fascinating phenomenon and our dependance on Google may yet win the day (their Gmail footprint being so enormous as you mention). It's also interesting to watch the tension between twitter and Googles mission statements – one organizing and another tracking with the world in real time. They are not mutually exclusive and twitter would prove a crowning asset to Google in its battle with facebook. I'll watch closely and listen closely to your predictions. Thanks again, Simon
Google buzz improve features you can also add social features to any products you want. This is great for building social apps. Google Buzz is really amazing. Sikat ang Pinoy
I find this feature really nice .. I saw the video .. it would be really easy to share …photos , videos and information .. and the best thing abt it is .. that you can select users with whom you want to share it with …
Best,
Daina
Good thoughts. I think you're right one.
That's right David, if that happens this means peers influence their friends more so than before. This means advocacy programs become *so* important to brands.
Funny pics on that post Johnson, No one said this was innovative. Google tends to be slower, but often does it better. The big thing they have going is integrating this with Google.com
Dan
In a game of margins, Google just needs 1% growth rate to activate their gmail base and grow it out. Again, the biggest opportunity is combing this with existing Search and SERP pages spreading Buzz.
It's a tricky spot for Google, should they be more simple like Twitter, or appeal to advanced user like Friendfeed? It lies somewhere in between.
Bas
Now you're thinking. All the social web data that Google is collecting will eventually be served up in SERP pages. I asked the product team about this, they nodded towards this direction, but said social content won't be treated much differently than other web content when it comes to rankings.
Google does well to buy technologies that are truly innovative (Dodgeball, although I'm not sure they did anything with it), or ones that are a competitive threat (they bought some companies that threatened google docs). I don't see Posterous fitting in either of those two categories.
Michael
Android is one of the ingredients in the sauce, but not the whole recipe. Expect Google to make its software features available on any handset or mobile devices.
You're absolutely right about Google making it's software available on every mobile device. What I was trying to get at was the incremental opportunity Google has over facebook, twitter and the like. All three can build apps for every mobile handset… but only Google (eventually) can integrate itself perfectly seamlessly with a mobile operating system that it owns and pre-package it with every mobile device that uses its operating system that gets sold. Its the same advantage that Microsoft Office enjoyed over Corel Office. Probably didn't make that point clear enough – and still not sure if I'm doing a good job, actually.
Speaking of Microsoft, if Microsoft had been able to make Windows Mobile work well enough to be a big player, they would have had a similar opportunity I think based on IM and hotmail
Jeremiah, might this actually be the marketing that makes people get a real google profile? Without that, they can't really make social search work. With buzz they get a google profile, with a google profile they can roll out the social search. With social search google has more and more personalized pages for search. This gives 2 advantages
1) adwords become more valuable, since every company without a social reach can't get into someones network with just good seo
2) more personal search means better search. So this is the way they can keep search alive and not lose to personal networks for finding stuff, like Twitter.
I'm not sure about this new technology. I'm certainly a layman, but when I login to gmail I'm just in the facebook [soc. media] zone.
I can't help but feel like Google holds us all hostage.
While I welcome their technological advances, I can't help but think they and a couple others are becoming monopolies and holding us all hostage — kind of like the big 3 phone companies back in the 1980's. We need to make sure we're supporting valid competitors and others with technological innovation.
Personally, it's nearly impossible to keep up with the amount of Social Media tools and sites — it's information overload and makes you almost feel “old” when you can't keep up. While it's understood you should choose a couple and stick with those, our clients expect us to stay abreast of who's the best to do that with and why or why they shouldn't choose to engage. It's mentally back braking work and often feels redundant. And now Google jumps into the ring?
Google/Gmail, Hotmail, and Yahoo should just team up so that they can just take the lead away from Facebook, or at least put up a fight.
Nook, I don't expect that to happen unless there's an acquisition.
This is a great breakdown of what Google Buzz means. It pushes everyone to move faster and to innovate better. If Google can leverage their Google users to create something like this — it'll be a huge win and a huge loss for both Twitter and Facebook. I wonder if Facebook will close it's channel to Google.
Although, I wonder — is the inbox as sacred as a lot of my non-techie friends say it is? Is this space too personal to add a social layer to it. Interesting conversations coming outside of the tech world.
Simply another piece in the Google jigsaw. Bringing it into the fold alongside email is a masterstoke. Platforms are coming together more and more, will we see the rise of super-platforms? The only difference between email and social networks will lie in the ability to choose who I choose to communicate with and whether that communication is public or private. End of the day all are communication channels.
Facebook is trying to embed the email service but Google is trying to embed social network to its email service, This is stunning.
Being a Small Business, if you will, I'm already hammered administrating contacts/content in several Social Networks and it's getting overwhelming. If this keeps up there will almost be no time for regular work.
A compelling aspect of buzz is how it leverages the rich context of Google maps. No other location-aware service does this. Buzz doesn't plot me as a lat/lng. It's a an address, or a business name, and the prompt to select a relevant location works well. This is really cool, and could also be a threat to Yelp.
However, from a non-Gmail user perspective, it's a mess. I'm a Google Apps user, and right now, there's a big disconnect between gBuzz and Google Apps, as Google Accounts and Google Apps logins do not play well together. In fact, the whole concept of a 'Google Account' is alien to most people (with the exception of straight up Gmail users who get an Account by default). Have you ever tried to get a person to associate their email address with a Google Account? Yikes. And the Google captcha is a nightmare.
Finally, the fact that Google forces you to have a public profile to post a Buzz is a bit oppressive. And your Google Profile has your real name displayed, you cannot display the nickname (that I've found) and still post a 'buzz'.
There's a reason people have handles on public services, like Yelp or Twitter, and keep their FB profiles private. Yes, I can create a private Buzz, but that forces me to make a choice. If you force a decision, the dropoff in completion is significant.
This is not to say gBuzz will fail. All I suggest is they will have a struggle to achieve mainstream adoption. It's still to techy, too geeky. And too many decisions are required. There is something very valuable in what they are trying to achieve, and it is all about improving search, and therefore it's in direct alignment with their mission (and primary revenue source)
Is “commoditizing” a word? That's a new one for me. However, thanks for the information.
I don't mean to be rude, but check your its/ it's 🙂 Apostrophe for it is, no apostrophe for ownership.
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Regarding “Buzz could have faster adoption rate than Twitter”, despite the privacy missteps Buzz appears to have good momentum relative to Twitter at this stage. Leo Laporte was one of the most popular Twitter users and he said this about Buzz recently “I'm not sure if this means anything but it took me a year to get to 10,000 followers on Twitter. It only took me a week on Buzz.” http://bit.ly/asBBmb
Regarding “Buzz could have faster adoption rate than Twitter”, despite the privacy missteps Buzz appears to have good momentum relative to Twitter at this stage. Leo Laporte was one of the most popular Twitter users and he said this about Buzz recently “I'm not sure if this means anything but it took me a year to get to 10,000 followers on Twitter. It only took me a week on Buzz.” http://bit.ly/asBBmb
i am agree with you that Google has fantastic tools for business owners who want to market their website in extraordinary ways. Google integrates Social Media quite well.
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Any ony tell what the Google Buzz mean.I can;t understand of that Buzz. why Google Make Buzz.
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I m enjoying the Buzz Feature provided by Google, It's Cool …….
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The 'buzz' around Google Buzz soon disappeared. Are Google having problems? Is this the beginning of the end for them? Who knows.
Thanks for the “definition” about Buzz , i searched for this some time ago.
Google Buzz is very new social network but develop very fast, I don't know why?
I guess I come from the opposite side, because I do not see email and social networks as the same, not at all.
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