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Re: Google Buzz

#31

Post by adrianwaj »

intellectronica wrote: post #5

Is Google becoming the new Microsoft? Not in the evil sense, but in the lame me-too products that rely on brute force (their huge install base) and no innovation to hopelessly try to compete sense.

Actually, Google more resemble Sun Microsystems to me: 1 revenue generating product (search with ads as, as opposed to servers) and then building an eco-system around it to support it (by using open standards.))

I think Sun's revenues also came from Software and Services, but mostly servers. We all know what happen to Sun. I don't know where Google can find its next cash cow.

Re: Google Buzz

#32

Post by mbrubeck »

joezydeco wrote: post #17
pibefision wrote: post #2

I think that it's a great move. GMAIL has 150MM users a month, you can bootstrap anything with that userbase. and Wave?

Is Buzz built with Wave? Can't find a mention anywhere, but it sure looks like Wave.

In response to a question at the press conference, they said the UI was "inspired by Wave." (Similarly, they said that it was not connected to Google Latitude now, but "over the next year" they hope to bring them closer together.)

Re: Google Buzz

#33

Post by mawhidby »

waterlesscloud wrote: post #27
mawhidby wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

From the looks of it, Google has integrated Buzz into their existing products (gmail, maps, places) that makes it more than just a me-too product. Specifically, a big advantage is in the way Buzz integrates with Gmail - it's brilliant. Compare how you would reply to an email notification from Facebook or Twitter: you'd have to login to the site and post your reply (or even see the actual reply) there. With Buzz, it's…

Which assumes people don't move to Facebook email. Migration of my friends to FB email seems far more likely to me than migration of all my social graph to Google Buzz. It would also be trivial for FB to allow response to notifications via external email if they decide to do it. I think people are seriously underestimating the value of Facebook's existing graphs. They've been shaped over a couple of years now to what…

You make a good point. I personally don't use FB too much, and don't see myself migrating, but I can see a lot of my friends who use FB possibly making the move.

For me, I use several of Google's products daily, and always have my Gmail open. That's why I like Buzz, because it seems like it fits me well.

What do you see happening to twitter then, if people move to FB mail, in addition to the introduction of Buzz?

Re: Google Buzz

#34

Post by sry_not4sale »

waterlesscloud wrote: post #27
mawhidby wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

From the looks of it, Google has integrated Buzz into their existing products (gmail, maps, places) that makes it more than just a me-too product. Specifically, a big advantage is in the way Buzz integrates with Gmail - it's brilliant. Compare how you would reply to an email notification from Facebook or Twitter: you'd have to login to the site and post your reply (or even see the actual reply) there. With Buzz, it's…

Which assumes people don't move to Facebook email. Migration of my friends to FB email seems far more likely to me than migration of all my social graph to Google Buzz. It would also be trivial for FB to allow response to notifications via external email if they decide to do it. I think people are seriously underestimating the value of Facebook's existing graphs. They've been shaped over a couple of years now to what…

>> It would also be trivial for FB to allow response to notifications via external email if they decide to do it.

You can actually already do this by replying to the notification email!

Re: Google Buzz

#35

Post by yungchin »

pibefision wrote: post #2

I think that it's a great move. GMAIL has 150MM users a month, you can bootstrap anything with that userbase. and Wave?

That's what I never got about Wave - that they didn't somehow integrate it with Gmail, not even loosely.

After I got a Wave account I invited a couple of friends, and they checked it out - signing in once, and forgetting about the whole service after that. So I tried including them in a few "waves", but there was no option to get email notifications of new waves! Of course they never returned, and the next time 'round I'd just email them again...

Re: Google Buzz

#36

Post by adrianwaj »

pibefision wrote: post #8

Check the API ( http://code.google.com/intl/es/apis/buzz/ )

I wonder if Google's API docs on the whole are too comprehensive. Most people just want to get to the meat fast, and then consume it. Twitter's API doc is one page.

Re: Google Buzz

#38

Post by ashishbharthi »

mrfabbri wrote: post #37

Accessing http://m.google.com/app/buzz from an iPhone works whether or not you see the buzz label in gmail. You can use Firefox with the "User-Agent Switcher" add-on set on iPhone to try it out.

iPhone webpage works for me but it still have issues when you post updates. I tried posting two updates, it kept going but updates were never posted.

Re: Google Buzz

#39

Post by jfno67 »

Just tried it out on my Android, can someone tell me why I'll go to Foursquare now... This is the best checkin interface yet.

Re: Google Buzz

#40

Post by philwelch »

intellectronica wrote: post #5

Is Google becoming the new Microsoft? Not in the evil sense, but in the lame me-too products that rely on brute force (their huge install base) and no innovation to hopelessly try to compete sense.

I had a similar insight when Google announced a tablet concept: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1094476

Microsoft's business strategy has always been a kind of unfocused. They didn't ever sit down and say DOS or BASIC or Word was going to be the cornerstone of their business, they just did what they thought would be useful at the time until they managed to hit on something. You can tell because, though I can't say anything for their old BASIC's, DOS wasn't even very good! As Microsoft got big enough to parallelize this strategy, it turned into a kind of shotgun strategy where they simultaneously tried to build web browsers and gaming consoles and mobile phone operating systems and MP3 players and webmail and everything else. If you read The Road Ahead, Bill Gates writes about Wang, which was enormously successful but missed the PC wave just long enough to go out of business. After Microsoft's own close call with the internet (ironically around the time The Road Ahead was written and first published), I'm sure these fears intensified to the point where Microsoft started jumping after every hot new thing, be it multitouch, MP3 players, search engines, or whatnot.

The contrast to this is Apple in the respective Jobs eras, which focused intensely on building a few great products. It's a far riskier strategy--if Apple invents the Macintosh and no one wants one, what then?

Google's had a shotgun approach as well--I don't know why, but it seems like a good use of the talent they seem so intent on recruiting. Part of the shotgun approach is that some products are better than others, but a likely bad part of the approach is that you are prone to go chasing after every new trend.

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