Too many social media cooks?

The new Buzz module will allow all 176 million users of Google’s Gmail service to see their friends’ live status updates, and share photos and videos.

Sound familiar? Been there, done that, got the Facebook/Twitter account already?

With social media success stories like Facebook claiming 400 million active users and Twitter recently reaching 75 million users, do we really need another social networking tool? Buzz is unlikely to usurp either of these services ; it doesn’t seem to add anything significant to what they already do and it certainly doesn’t attempt to do them any better.

To add to this, Google also faces competition from Yahoo and Microsoft, which have already added social networking features to their web mail products: Microsoft’s Hotmail and IM products between them claim close to 500 million users.

Also, what are the benefits for businesses? As we know, Facebook and Twitter have both been useful tools for building and maintaining brands, but what does Buzz offer? The answer is nothing at the moment as the service has not yet been rolled out to those using Gmail within organisations – this is due to arrive in March 2010. However, if it is a success, brands would be foolish to ignore the service, as experts predict that, if it was adopted by all of Gmail’s existing users, it would slingshot past News Corporation’s MySpace to become the world’s second-largest social network – behind Facebook.

Despite the cynicism and doubt surrounding this new service (and the growing privacy concerns), we must not cast aside the fact that Buzz has access to a large talent pool of engineers and it stands on top of existing Gmail, mobile devices, and a dominant search portal. Indeed, if Buzz grew, users could integrate with all Google apps and aggregate the entire internet. So, at this stage, I’m going to sit on the fence and say let’s watch this space.

Latest Posts

If you’re a designer or marketer who’s tired of creating content that gets lost in the endless scroll, this one’s for you. Know Your Canvas (And Its Quirks) Each platform has its own personality, and your designs need to respect that. Instagram loves vertical formats that fill the screen, whilst…
Read More
TikTok has just made it even easier to enjoy the music you discover on the app by adding YouTube Music as a new music-saving option. Now, if you come across a song you like while scrolling, you can quickly save it straight to your YouTube Music playlist with just a…
Read More
A designer’s guide to scroll-stopping edits and visuals This blog is a follow-up on our recent article on the rising impact of short-form video on LinkedIn, where we explored how today’s business professionals are engaging with video content in smarter, faster, and more selective ways. With completion rates 200%…
Read More