Google Buzz Is the Next Google Flop
Google Buzz strives to take off, because it never left a real mark in users’ hearts. Will they shut it down like they did with Wave? In a recent interview with the Wall Street Journal, when asked about the rumors regarding the possible launch of a new social network branded by the big G (Google Me), Google CEO Eric Schmidt said in a lapidary sentence hat “The World Doesn’t Need A Copy Of The Same Thing. ”
This does not necessarily mean that Google will waive its share in the social network environment (estimated revenues rise up to around 1.1 billion dollars for Facebook alone) but that probably his statement should be read as an attempt by the Mountain View giant to propose something so innovative that it could completely rewrite the rules of social networks as we know them.
That’s what you would expect from Google after the launch of several products that were announced with great fanfare but that proved to be resounding failures.
Google has often exploited the huge economic resources resulting from its core business in order to launch “clones” of competing successful services, with the erroneous belief that its brand was a reason enough to prevail over other competitors and gain market share in areas other than that of search engines. Proceeding this way though Google has made a mistake and the unsuccessful attempts like Google Answers, Knol, Orkut, Lively and more recently Google Buzz are the living proof.
Google Buzz strives to take off, because it never left a real mark in users’ hearts. It’s a kind of Twitter surrogate that includes a few additional features totally devoid of originality, making it look more like the Facebook Wall. It’s integrated with GMail and it looks like an extension of this mail service, but to me it’s not clear why users would need it and why they should use it because, ultimately, it has nothing you can’t find anywhere else.
The tabbed interface inherited from GMail is a nightmare. Following the many conversations becomes cumbersome and frustrating. The service doesn’t have a satisfying mobile client that could become the key to making the experience of using the service more pleasant and immediate than the web interface alone.
Furthermore, let’s face it, it is no way “cool” and it gives you the feeling of being exclusively dedicated to a niche audience rather than to a large scale consumer base as, instead, Twitter is.
The question is: was Google Buzz really necessary? What were the unique selling points Google execs individuated when launching it, if to users’ eyes it was not much more than a service emulating Twitter?
Given the disappointing results what is Google planning for Buzz? Will they shut it down like they did with Wave? Will it be left like a neglected link within the GMail interface on the brink of a slow oblivion?
The World Doesn’t Need A Copy Of The Same Thing. Hope they’ve learnt the lesson this time.
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Personally I would prefer it if Google shut down Buzz rather than Wave. I must point out that I have only dabbled with Wave occasionally but always thought that it would be useful one day. For me Buzz is just another place to channel my Tweets on the off-chance that some non Twitter users may be listening.
Perhaps Wave did too much, too soon — whereas, Buzz did too little, too late.
Totally agree with you, Chris. Buzz seemed to offer nothing new other than yet another place to do the same things we already do on Twitter and some other social sites. Wave seemed more novel, but Google jumped ship way too early to see it through to the end.
I agree, great article, i think i tested Buzz for about one week. Why did they bother just copying Twitter?
I completely agree with Chris Marshall on this – that Buzz should have ended, NOT Wave. I have even deleted my Buzz account because it was redundant, and a large waste.
On the other hand, I used Wave DAILY. Since starting it had become critical to our distributed work team. We are now scrambling to find effective alternatives because of how quickly it became THE tool we were using. As far as I am concerned, something that can become so ingrained, so ubiquitous, so quickly is a sure sign of a SUCCESS, not a failure.
It’s kinda like Oxygen, you don’t realize how much you use it, until it’s not there. If ONLY they had not made it invite only like GMail’s first steps. It’s not an e-mail client that can instantly connect everywhere. It’s collaboration, which means it needs everyone to have access. They easily could have ridden high on that first swell if people had access to learn to use it and develop for it, etc.
Overall, quite disappointed to see it shelved. I do NOT need another Social Network, in any size shape or form. What I do need is a collaboration, communication and project management tool. It would be even better if it were integrated to Google Services.
Finally its right and i hope companies stop copying the other concepts which are already in market. People need to do some thing new, if really google wants to do new things, there are many new things to be implemented in all products that are in market right now, gmail google news etc etc
Try getting new concepts and include them so that the product always stands up high
i dont like buzz
Me too. It’s a confusing product. Nothing else than a bad clone of Twitter.
i am also
Anyone who considers Buzz a Twitter clone simply hasn’t understood the idea behind Buzz. The comments to this article are no surprise.
And with all that Twitter praise, may I remind the lot of you how often the question “does Twitter make any sense?” along with the statement “I just don’t get it” and a further “what is it good for?” was uttered? It seems that only in the last year Twitter eventually became an accepted communication platform.
Buzz is nothing like twitter at all. from the character limits, to the thread counts, to the image sharing. In fact- Buzz is the single best image sharing Social Media platform available. (I’m a photographer) In addition, Buzz is clearly an integral part of whatever new Google SM project we keep hearing about. Why else would the CEO of Google praise it regularly at conferences and boast about “millions of users”? I agree that Wave was prematurely let go, but to assume that Buzz is going the same direction is putting the cart before the horse. I predict that “Google ME” or whatever its called, will use the Buzz algorithm similar to the feed that Facebook has for its UI. Add to that real-time translation, and typing across an easily threaded conversation, give it a “like button” and you have a great product, which is already distributed to “million of users”. This gives Google an early adoption group that can assist in working out bugs like with all Google Products. Buzz was/is a way for them to work out basic features on a specific part of their UI, while integrating it with other Google SM applications. Not to mention buzz is now a component of mobile, maps, docs, and several other Google products. If they were going to kill it, why would they do the very difficult task of integrating everything on the back side? You will note that Wave was never integrated with other existing products. Give buzz a chance before knocking it. The people commenting that they “dont like buzz” should try to engage a more robust user group- it makes for some great friends and conversations. For the record- I have made more $$ from SM marketing on Buzz in the last 6 months than I have in the last 3 years on FB. It simply attracts a more tech-savvy and interesting community, IMHO. i find it an interesting coincidence that Wave will be supported until the end of the year, maybe about the time a certain Google ME might get released???
‘Twitter is like throwing coins into a toll booth basket going at high speed, Buzz is stopping at a cafe and having a nice conversation’. (Quote’s from Dr. Matthias Thorner).
That’s exactly why I prefer Buzz over Twitter. Twitter just drives me crazy. For me, the rhythm of Buzz is just right. As always with micro-blogging, it’s good to be short, but having more than 140 characters allows you to actually say something, and to receive a decent reply. And the multimedia just adds more value to the experience.
What Buzz does need is more users, true, but for me the right answer is to invest in Buzz, not to dismiss it.
Not a bad post, except that it has very little to do with what Buzz really does. Buzz needs more integration with other Google initiatives to show off its full power, but it’s a very useful information sharing and discussion platform as is.
Buzz is also a good platform, having its own unique applications. There are differences between Twitter and buzz Let the users decide which is right and which is wrong and the time will show this all.
Buzz has all the pontential of a good tool, I just have not yet foun it useful yet. Twitter on the other hand still offers no use to me at all. It’s a shame what happen to “Google Wave”, I was still waiting for an invite….
We use Buzz more than facebook with my friends…
Interesting post as I found myself dubious about how to use Google Buzz.
However, long live to Buzz or not, don’t forget the development purpose of any of the Google’s features and apps and widgets.
The shade casts over Google copying concepts and services doesn’t really suit the idea of the free web, no one copies really whereas everyone develops. Who gloats or fails boils down to the millions of users of the internet in a way.
I reckon market shares, turnover and users’ loyalty are solidly established by Google which gives them a leeway of purely development purpose for the next five years or so.
For the records: I’ve just Buzzzed this post myself!
The 140 limit on twitter is a turn off when you want to post something like a poem or a blog. Besides i like to post in real english at the risk of looking uncool. Buzz also allows taking feed from twitter. So I put all my 140 char updates on twitter and the others on buzz. Since buzz pulls all the twitter updates it will be the one place to keep in touch with me. :)
The PROBLEM with Google, as a corporation to launch anything other than Gmail is that you get the overriding impression/experience (I think of thousands and thousands of “adopters”) that GOOGLE DOES NOT LISTEN BECAUSE GOOGLE IS JUST A BUNCH OF ALGORITHMS.
There is no SOUL, no human being, no CUSTOMER SERVICE ever!
You cannot TALK to GOOGLE about ANYTHING!
I have “participated” in their forums over the years and they are filled with thousands of frustrated “users” who are BEGGING for contact with real engineers as to why things DO NOT WORK.
Frustration is the overwhelming emotion echoed in countless Forums, which are offered as the way to get “questions” answered.
It seems, with all of its billions in revenue, that Google pays abolutely no attention to staffing their forums with real live tech types who also have a hand in the development and solving issues for any of their products.
Google sucks hugely in interfacing with the real people who want to try their core products.
Try telling somebody that they have completely mislabelled roads in Google Earth and Google Maps. Nothing works in that process of “notification”.
Go try to get real answers as to why Google Checkout doesn’t work, or what is PLANNED for Google Checkout, or why errors or stupidities are turning up in this very limited system and there ARE NO RESPONSES from the “management”.
And as for their Google Video “support” even before they bought Youtube…..complete waste of time—on and on, application after application that they want us to ADOPT and USE…there is NO ONE HOME!
If Google had the BRAINS and the MARKETING SAVVY to go act like a COMPANY instead of a search engine that just responds to dumb text strings they might have a chance to pull away from the competition in other areas.
But Google’s presence looms over the landscape like one of those huge Star Wars Imperial Armoured Walkers. Google executives seem to sit up in the cockpit expecting to simply push buttons and unleash weapons and gadgets on us ants crawling the terrain below.
Google needs people on board who understand that in some aspects they must DOWNSIZE a project, spin it off completely, take it away from only being accessible inside a Google Account, give it a human scope and REACT to the USERS.
But I have definitely formed the opinion that there is no one I can talk to Directly if I want to really test something new from Google. Gmail is all I allow myself these days.
By the way, the Documents functionality is a JOKE. So much for “cloud applications”….you cannot supplant an office suite locally installed with what Google is offering in “online office” applications.
I would love for Google to do something for me beyond search, maps, and email.
But, they are going to have to come down to my scale and give me real people to talk to–the kind who will say, hmmm, let me get back to you tomorrow and see if I can get an answer for that issue. That would be refreshing. And might even get me to try some more apps.