Google Buzz

Most of you know I'm a bit of a techno-geek, so imagine my amazement when I woke up this morning to crazy news about Google Buzz coming out of nowhere. Literally I had no idea what this was, so I started reading all the articles. Apparently Google is still on track to dominate the world through the internet. Google Buzz is like Twitter, only integrated with your Gmail account as well as other Google products like Picasa Web, YouTube, Flickr, Blogger, etc. You can also integrate with your Twitter account to post your Buzz updates to your Twitter stream.

What differentiates Buzz from Twitter, and the reason I think I'm going to like it so much, is its seamless integration with Google products--particularly Gmail. For those of you who already have Gmail accounts, once you sign up for Buzz (you can do so here), you'll see a label just under your inbox called "Buzz". You can go in there to see friends who have posted updates, comment on those posts, or post your own updates. You can do all this with Twitter, but Twitter doesn't do as good of a job bringing the conversation to you. For example, if I post an update on Twitter and a friend @replies me, I won't see that reply unless I go into Twitter and look through my stream. Or, I can use a third party app and look at my mentions. The point is, I have to go searching for those replies. Buzz, on the other hand, will let you know when someone comments on your update by showing up in the Buzz label and your Gmail inbox. From right there within Gmail, you can comment back.

It's day 1 of Buzz, but I'm already pleased with what I see. In fact, if you're following me on Buzz, you'll get this blog post in your Buzz box and can comment on it from there. Pretty sweet if I do say so myself.

For those of you holding out on getting a Gmail account, I would encourage to quit fighting the Google domination and join in on the fun.