RLASKEY: words

Google has recently released a new service, entitled “Google Buzz,” which seemingly is headed towards both Twitter and Facebook.  Essentially, Google Mail now has another tab for Twitter-like updates by those who you choose to follow.

Overload

At this point in the game, of the three big offerings out there listed above, Twitter is currently winning my heart for top spot.  Perhaps the rise of Twitter has spurred on Facebook and Google in a space which perhaps may not exist in the same capacity as they do today.  Fundamentally, though, the end result in all these networks come to a matter of data overload.  Twitter’s 140 character limit occasionally looks silly; the result, however, is that it’s forced its users to reduce the amount of data, which in turn lessens the load on our collective brains.

Tying down big bundles of data

Facebook, on the other hand, works with highly structured data.  Google, on the other hand, has worked on finding structure in huge masses of data, attempting to give a flexible, working structure for all varieties of content.  Now that Facebook has so many users, it’s begun to take the Google-like approach: I have more than 600 contacts in Facebook, though I contact nearly zero of them on a regular basis through that particular service.  Facebook’s recent redesign, emphasizing the search bar to be both larger and front and center.  Google, now with Buzz, is looking to very slightly structure the conversations it previously only attempted to catalog.  The two, then, are on increasingly intersecting paths.

Twitter, on the other hand, has avoided both of these traps: it’s a self-contained cataloging and reduction service, by which information is captured in a headline and a link.  Twitter is not self-sufficient, and their business model has been to allow for open access and extension by third party developers.  Search functionality has long been a central feature; and while the recent lists and retweet modifications are certainly more structure than was there a year ago, these are both features which are first non-essential, and secondly were largely supplied by third-party apps such as Tweetdeck who had their own RT and groups functions.

Back to Buzz..

My first problem with Google Buzz is in its approach towards privacy: by default, all Buzz content is made public. The only way you are allowed to post privately is if you first specify a Google Contacts group with which you want to share.  In essence, Buzz is copying functionality from Twitter in order to bolster its under-utilized functions.

Buzz as a commenting service rings rather clearly of Google Friend Connect.  Friend Connect has been around for a little while now, though it never quite took off.  Largely, it’s JavaScript-based systems were a bit awkward, both for display purposes and for the webmaster / developer.

Buzz as a Google service seems to also try and fold more users into both Gmail and Google Chat.  I’ve had a Gmail account for years, and I never at any point felt any real desire to utilize the Contacts groups.  There’s just not all that much reason for it, even though it’s been there for a while.  Indeed, the main difference between Google Chat and Google Buzz is that most conversations in the latter are not implied to be private, and are thereby more accessible to both search and data-mining.  It’s a brilliant, subtle spin headed towards putting our conversations out in the open.. where, I may argue, they don’t necessarily belong.  Moreover, Buzz does not seem to employ length limits for each post; and its public nature again heads more towards overload from all sources.

At this point, it’s hard to say where “social media” is headed, and how it will transform the way that we humans will interact with each other.  Community as a service is a bit of a new concept, and in this digital world it’s a tad scary to think to what degree fads and corporate market shares play a role in these interactions. Perhaps what’s most important is that we are able to forget the websites and the branding and eventually settle on the humans we care about more than the technology that connects us together.  I wish everyone the best of luck in accomplishing if only that.