After tons of emails asking me about my thoughts on Google Buzz, I thought I’d share them here. Google Buzz is a VERY bad idea. Why?
1) Google should stick to what they do best – SEARCH. They could have focused on making their search better (especially with Bing at the heels). They could have indexed Facebook and Twitter so well that people used Google to find their friends to connect with on Facebook. But it didn’t. It focused on social networking.
2) Facebook should NOT allow Google access to its content. David Coursey made some excellent points about this in his PC World article.
3) Google could be in serious trouble for breaking privacy policies. People use gmail! Lets use that information to create a social networking site. Bad move. A lot of people didn’t appreciate an “instant” social network using email contacts. Email contact base does NOT equal social media base.
My prediction – Google Buzz will cause a lot of buzz (pardon the pun), but then fizzle. Could I be wrong? Of course. In which case, I’ll be happy to show you how to use Google Buzz. For now, Facebook has my vote when it comes to social networking.