A different perspective on Google Buzz
Feb 11th, 2010 by Lasse Storgaard
A lot of people have taken on an opinion on Google Buzz – so have I, but for most part, I don’t agree with anybody. Reports are running in, as you might have guessed, that Buzz is lame and no match to Twitter or Facebook. An argument that seems reasonable, but from my point of view it is not true. See the twitter opinion and Business Insider with a pre-review.
A couple of days ago, I had a class in Strategy and Performance Measurement. One of my classmates argued that Google lacked direction and didn’t have a uniform business strategy. If your point of view are the Mainstream Perception (MP) of Google, yes then it might seem like Google lacks a direction in strategy. The MP is something like “Hey look what we made” attitude towards new products and technology. What you should realize is that every new feature or function, such as Google Buzz, are an improvement on the Business Platform Google are building. The platform is known as Google Apps, as you might know already.
If you have tried Google Buzz, and didn’t like it – Then you should consider the business case:
Your company are using Google Apps. This means it is the primary fascilitator of communications. You are running an intranet on Google Sites, you are video chatting and instant messaging (IM) through Talk, sharing calenders, sharing documents and using their Office Application and E-mail client. Your e-mail are Pushed to your smartphone along with contacts and calendar updates and so forth. In between the E-mail and IM communication there is a gap. The E-mail are able to reach every one in your company but in a very formel and “slow” mannor. IM are fast, easy to use and not so formal but limited to a very small subset of the company. Buzz are just as Facebook and Twitter, an agile communicator with the ability to reach a crowd and still a be a Point to Point (P2P) communicator. The difference is, it is an integrated service. Which I think i very powerful!
Google Buzz might not be a revolution to personal users. But it is yet another screwdriver (not the drink) in the toolbox towards making Google Apps a VERY serious competitor to Microsofts company IT architecture.
Why do Google have this strategy?
Well because they are pretty good at predicting the future. Since more and more communications have moved from offline communication, to inhouse hosted services and later on to cloud services. Google are pointing in the direction that the future of company communication services are Cloud based and preferrely based on their services, rather than an expensive infrastructure from Microsoft.
Man ender nok med at blive sat i bås som Google-fanboy, ved at holde fanen højt inden “buzzen” omkring det er faldet til ro. Men selv for privatpersoner giver det da god mening at få samlet sine services. Og netop på integration services imellem, er Google jo virkeligt generationer foran. Der er mange der får problemer med at komme om med alternativer til mægtige Google de næste år, også er der jo ikke andet for end at indordne sig under deres standarder.
Ja du jo ret. Jeg kommer nok også til at bruge det mere og mere. Specielt når den er så integreret som den er og med App til iPhone, Blackberry, Symbian osv er det jo en leg.
Jeg sad her den anden dag og spekulerede på hvad der binder mig til Facebook og Twitter. Efter lidt tid kom jeg frem til alle brugerne på Facebook – men samtidig er de lige så meget med til at drive mig væk. Jeg er SUPER træt af folk der siger “syntes godt om” til alt i mellem himmel og jord. Valgte også at lukke min profil af for omverdenen, næste skridt er at sortere i vennerne så de ryger på en A og B liste over hvad de kan se. Er sgu nok ikke så social at jeg kan tolerere folks irriterende opførsel 18 timer i døgnet på en socialside! Kaja foreslår jeg bare går igang med at unfriende folk, men det syntes jeg er lidt drastisk.