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Tuesday, May 25, 2010

Three weeks with Buzz

I've been using Buzz for about three weeks now.  Its been great connecting with my Google Practicum classmates over Buzz.  I know its a new service, and the API was recently released.  But I would like to see a few features added.

More powerful group options.  It is very hard to add people to a group.  If they are not in your contacts you have to hunt for their Google account.  How about an "Add to group..." feature somewhere.

More powerful people finder.  I would like to be able to search for people based on what they have on their Google profile.  This could provide for more networking opportunities.

I do like Buzz though...

People on Buzz are more inclined to start a conversation.  Facebook seems like posturing at a pretentious bar.  You're just trying to get noticed.  Twitter users do retweet and @reply but its hard to have a conversation in 140 characters.  Leaving comments on someone's blog seems like too much commitment to me.  Almost as if you're telling the world, "I follow this person and have high regard for their opinion."  Buzz takes away a lot of mentioned negatives.  You can post something very short.  Write a long opinion.  Even just "like" a post.  Its casual enough but still means something to Buzz or reply to a post.

I'm a fan but see a lot of room for improvement.