Google’s joining the social networking party. According to CNN, today the internet giant launched Google Buzz, which incorporates ideas from Facebook and Twitter. Buzz, which will work through the popular email provider Gmail, will allow users to post status updates, photos and links to members of their network — as well as pull in their activity on other sites like Twitter, Flickr and Picasa.
Google spokesman Bradley Horowitz said the service, which was rolling out to some Gmail users Tuesday afternoon and should be available to everyone in the next couple of days, aims to weed out what he called the clutter of other networking sites. (He”s talking about you, Farmville.)
With networking sites, “there’s obviously value there,” Horowitz said. “It’s a phenomenon that’s real, but it’s increasingly becoming harder and harder to make sense and find the signal in the noise.”
He said Google Buzz will automatically make “friends” out of the people a user e-mails or chats with the most on Gmail. Different settings will allow the user to make their posts public, like on Twitter, or private, like most posts on Facebook. Hmm. I love Gmail, but I’m not sure I want to be friended by everyone who emails me. Do we really need another social networking tool? Getting everyone to switch seems like a tall order.
