Google Buzz?

So now Google has come out with something new. Can't quite figure it out...seems to be about as useful as Wave and Twitter.

It's basically a cross between Twitter and Facebook - except better, IMO. It's a little more "personal/private" because it's limited to the people in your Gmail address book unless you actively seek-out others.

I'm really excited about it. Anyone who has a gmail account should check it out. I personally see it as a way to extend twitter (and other social websites) instead of a replacing them. The link below is to my initial reaction. Does anyone here not use gmail? I'm wondering if you have to sign up to comment.

http://bit.ly/aAkZGc

I don't have gmail
But I clicked on the comment button just to answer your question - You need from what I can see is a Google Account which I don't have one either

If anything can put a dent in facebook, this will be it. I REALLY hope it does because I loathe that site and all the stupid that comes with it.

I don't Tweet nor Face Book nor MySpace and certainly not Google Buzz .

If you wanna talk to me Pal - email

No Gmail here. Don't need it.

I'm sure some folks at Google enjoy a good buzz.

The way I see these services:

Twitter • Link Farming (sorta like a customized digg) I follow people that post interesting links/comments

Facebook • mostly keeping up with family crap

Buzz • Public conversations, How-Tos, mini-blog posts, etc.

I've got coffee shops, letters, phone, texts, email and facebook - that's already too much to be going on with. Anything that increased the traffic coming into my phone would drive me nuts. I do google talk with my friend down in New Mexico, too, because it's quicker and easier than skype or whatever. The thing is, when I communicate with people, I want actual conversations, not telegrams.

Actually, I really enjoy google talk, because it gives both of us more time to think how we want to reply, and there's no sense of pressure like there is in a phone conversation - but it's more immediate than email or whatever. Plus I can choose a backing track for the conversation .

I just deactivated my facebook account. (not because of Buzz)

i just spent a week having my class discussions in Wave instead of our discussion forum. about 2/3 of my class likes Wave better than our typical forum (similar to this Mactech forum). i think i liked Wave a bit more as well. they need to speed it up and they need a way to not let my students accidentally edit my posts (or another students), but i don't see that happening soon. so, in a sense that's sort of like a wiki. meh. but the potential is awesome. i am thinking of switching to it permanently for this semester.

i think Buzz is better than Twitter, but it's not taking off as quickly as i'd hoped. i really don't like twitter because, as Zwei notes, it's really just a glorified and targeted Digg with this link and that one. meh. but Buzz doesn't have the 140 character limit and allows multimedia to be embedded. it's a better service than Twitter, but Twitter is too ingrained into society to go away without a fight.

I haven't had a chance to mess with wave yet (not that I really have a reason), but I've heard good things about it. Seems to be a great collaborative text tool.

As far as twitter goes, you just have to find the people you are interested in following. twitter search can help you find them. Richard Dawkins is on there …I know he's fairly popular here in these forums Then you have other fountains of wisdom like http://bit.ly/1a8Wuj

I don't really find buzz better or worse than twitter …just different. If you are looking for serious two-way conversation it's not the tool for you. The thing I hate seeing the most is people linking up their twitter to their buzz account. ( http://bit.ly/dbol7S ) They are two separate services and need to be treated as such.

i follow a bunch of comedians on Twitter, but that's just for a little comic relief every now and then. my other Twitter account is for purely professional purposes and it's more or less Digg for our field.

every tweet i make automatically appears in my Buzz feed. in fact, everyone i follow on Buzz is making their tweets appear there. i rarely see an original buzz made that didn't originate on Twitter. that's not good for Buzz, which is why i said it's not taking off as quickly as i'd hoped.

Why not just follow them on twitter and not on buzz then?

I can't see myself following people on buzz that have their twitter accounts linked (unless they only make a couple tweets a month). I'll either only follow them on twitter …or not at all.

i only follow them on Buzz because i signed up on day 1 and had a feeling it would crush Twitter. i don't even really check Buzz other than seeing it once or twice a week when i go into Gmail. i have hundreds of followers on Twitter and about 12 on Buzz who don't even make original posts there. meh. i have no incentive help Buzz beat Twitter other than thinking it's a far better service. ah well.

now Wave . . . Wave is sweet.

EDIT: i actually like using Buzz on my iPhone and checking to see the buzzes happening all around me in my city. that's pretty nifty in a voyeuristic sort of way.

I'm waiting for a buzz app myself. The iPad will probably get one before the Mac, but that'll be fine with me

Going to gmail to read the crap sucks.

Most web-geeks (such as Dvorak and Leo Laporte) are reporting that Google Wave is a complete bust, and Buzz is just not catching on - despite all the web press it's getting.

I like Buzz, but it can be really annoying. I'm pretty much sticking with FB and Twitter.

Buzz won't catch on at all until it gets an application like tweetie, tweetdeck, etc made for it. It's just way to clunky and slow checking it through gmail.

Last I heard from Leo Laporte was that he was going to try and do a spell where he was only posting to buzz. Those posts would then be forwarded to twitter/fb. Guess that wasn't panning out for him. Of course, he changes his mind every time he gets around a different group of people.

I did see that android just got an official buzz client.

Google Wave is not a complete bust, but they really should have improved the product before opening it up. like i said, i use it for class discussions and about 1/2 of my students like it far better our class forums (similar to Mactech). but a few others have had trouble with Wave crashing constantly so i had to abandon the product this week. ah well.

it needs a notification system so that you can ready new messages similar to an email, which is missing right now. that takes away from the aura of the product as well. but when it's working it's really better than these decade old forum systems . . . it's just not there yet, though.