But will it catch on? Does the world need another news-sharing device?
To be honest, my first instinct was skepticism. After all, I already have places to share my favorite links: Twitter, Facebook, emails, Gchat away messages and conversations. Why did I need another platform? Of course, that was a common reaction to Google chat as well. Most Gmail users at the time were already using instant message services like AIM. They didn't "need" another IM program. But the simple genius of Gchat was its location. The email window turned out to be the logical place to have real-time conversations because it was already a window dedicated to keeping in touch with friends and colleagues. And Gchat took off.
The simple genius of Google Buzz (if you're already a Gmail user) is also its location, directly under your inbox icon. This just makes sense. When users sign into Gmail they see two numbers in the top left corner: first, the number of unread emails, and second, the number of unread Buzz items. One number for the things other people want you to do, and one number for the things other people want you to read.
Much of the commentary on Buzz has focused on whether it "kills" Twitter or Facebook. I'm not ready to give the emperor's thumb down to either of those behemoths, but certainly Twitter has more to worry about. Facebook for me is still a pulsating yearbook first, photo album second and news sharer third. Twitter is a news sharer exclusively, and it's seen healthier days. Homepage traffic has flat-lined recently, and it's conceivable that -- given the now-famous statistic that more than half of Twitter registers have never tweeted -- we've entered a period of decelerated excitement about the product. Buzz, which can import Twitter feeds (along with Flickr and Google Reader), debuts with an audience of 150 million and growing. What's more, it's an audience that is sticking around, since I'm inclined to agree with Farhad Manjoo that it's the best mail service on the planet.
But eyes on the prize: What does this mean for advertising, which drives more than 90 percent of Google revenue? It's wise to think about Buzz in the framework of Google's ad strategy, which emphasizes the growing mobile market. Fundamentally, Buzz gives Google's ad robots a better sense of what you're reading, what you're interested in, and accordingly, what you'll buy. Justin from Mobile Marketing Watch has some interesting ideas:
In its demonstration of Buzz on Tuesday's unveiling, Google showcased so-called conversation "balloons" appearing on a smartphone's Google Maps screen. This location-based "buzz" lets a user's followers know where they are and what they're doing at all times, integrated heavily with Google maps. Imagine, if you will, an ad for a restaurant or a small boutique shop also popping up somewhere, either in the balloon or on the Maps screen itself, or perhaps a survey request from a nearby coffee shop, with the promise of a 10 percent discount on a latte if you fill in the form.Great point. The unique opportunity in mobile advertising is in the adjective. Your audience is on-the-go, surrounded by shops and restaurants that want their money. Google Buzz won't necessarily be the keystone in that strategy, but it will help ad
So, what exactly are "ad logarithms" (last paragraph)?
They are code that scan the content of the message and determine a relevant text Ad to be shown nearby in the window. very clever targeted advertising.
The weakness of these logarithms is that they cannot handle political advertising (which is often negative).
The issue you raise is important, but an even more crucial flaw is mathematical in nature. The main problem with these logarithms is that Advertising Logarithm Engineers -- fresh out of school, their heads spinning with binary code and loan payments -- tend to reflexively choose a base of two. This may increase sales of RAM chips and Java beans, but isn't nearly as good at selling potato chips or coffee beans.
My research in the area shows that it would be much more natural, and more profitable, if programmers chose a base for their advertising logarithms closer to e ≈ 2.72. Another promising number that tends to push people's buttons for some reason is
φ = (1 + √ 5) / 2 ≈ 1.61.
To the author: It's hard to take someone's opinion on an issue seriously when they misuse basic vocabulary in a vain attempt to sound smart.
(Hint: Logarithm vs. Algorithm.)
I'm surprised how people managed to miss it even after you pointed it out in your first post.
I haven't heard of "ad logarithms" either.
"Simple genius"? You serious? I don't WANT a social networking account tied that closely to my e-mail. My e-mail is for my private conversations with other people. Google has committed a MAJOR breach of trust with the horrendous way they foisted this new service on its existing customers, with no way to quietly test the waters before making all sorts of information about who your other contacts are (at a minimum) publicly available to all sorts of people.
And the location stuff? YIKES! Way too much information being shared there to be connected directly to my e-mail. Google Buzz is rapidly approaching being the Google killer, not the potential future of the company. Google has fundamentally breached its trust with me, but so far they still think they can wiggle out of this fiasco by tweaking start-up options. They can't. They need to kill this service and start from scratch.
Relax, just scroll to the bottom of your gmail page and click on "turn off buzz" you won't need to be bothered again. You might want to turn off chat while you're there.
Don't Relax. "Turn off google buzz" at the bottom of your screen merely makes it so *you* can't see it. If you made the mistake of letting it activate, then it's still there, buzzing away, posting every gchat status, google reader entries and whatnot to anyone who you ever emailed once who has a gmail account. Stalkers and abusive ex-spouses get to see your info free, without your say in it! How wonderful!
http://news.cnet.com/8301-17939_109-10451703-2.html
Go to the bottom of your gmail page
"Gmail view: standard | turn on chat | turn off buzz | older version | basic HTML Learn more"
Click "turn off buzz"
Also, you now have more control over who follows, private posts, what shows up on your profile, and they ditched auto-follow (http://gmailblog.blogspot.com/2010/02/new-buzz-start-up-experience-based-on.html)
learn about using multiple inboxes and you can set up a nice funnel for both emails and buzzes, without the two getting in each others way
^
"learn about using multiple inboxes and you can set up a nice funnel for both emails and buzzes, without the two getting in each others way"
http://www.pcworld.com/article/189204/google_buzz_5_tips_for_power_users.html
So much of the conversation from the digital pundits is about what we buy and how to get us to buy more, more, more. How empty is this concern in a world that has many more pressing issues and better things to do? In case you havent noticed, the nature that supports our real quality of life is groaning under the weight of our consumption.
^ +1
@kevin2
Yes, please stop buying groceries, energy and services. I'm sure you would not be interested in coupons for your local convenience stores and supermarkets. Because I am sure you grow all of your own food, sew your own clothes, power your Flintstone transportation with your bare feet, and you must have communicated your forum message via carrier pigeon to your Internet-enabled friend who has an economic dependency on society like the rest of us living in reality, who appreciate the opportunity for targeted advertising to help us maximize our dollar which enables our livelihood.
If you automatically leap to the excessive consumption argument maybe you should examine your own lifestyle before judging everyone else. Learn to separate the issues at hand. Advertising does not equal overconsumption. I as a consumer am very excited by the increase in competition and look forward to the benefits to consumers that more intelligent advertising can bring. I do not want to waste time on advertising for irrelevant / uninteresting products.
@Kong
I think they meant "advertising algorithms." I have no idea what an "ad logarithm" is.
Justin - Logarithm is a real word actually although I had to look it up to make sure. I thought it was a typo'd algorithms myself. Here's the definition for what it's worth (a bit beyond me though):
http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/logarithm
It's the mathematical inverse of a power.
E.g. 10^2 = 100 => log(100) = 2
Unless you're actually a math major, in which case log(100) becomes ~4.6
=P
Justin,
WAY TOO CONDESCENDING and HOSTILE. Ad hominen arguments don't work. Kevin has a point and did not sound judgmental, whereas....
Retailers make buying products and services complicated. Suggested retail, retail at wholesale prices, sales, rebates, discounts...all designed to make a person feel like he/she gets a good deal. It's a game, and the consumer is usually the sucker.
In the mean time, half the world's population goes to bed hungry, too many people in our own country have no medical care. These are real concerns. Social networking techniques are bogus by comparison.
Here is my comment for the buzz -
Check out this google song...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l96tB6WMymo
Does Google Buzz have any SEO value?
http://www.annuitydefinition.com
"Simple genius." Does the author have any clue why Buzz got so many blog posts?
Because it's a mess--possibly the biggest invasion of privacy to date.
Buzz automatically threw people's personal information up online without their consent. It opened everyone's gmail accounts and contact lists up to spamming and surveillance. It automatically opted people in to sharing all kinds of information they didn't want shared.
And no, turning off Buzz doesn't prevent that. That just prevents you from knowing how Google has made your information public.
To stop this invasion, you have to delete your profile. Otherwise, Google seizes the right to make that public and searchable.
I'm sure advertisers love it. So do industrial-espionage types, totalitarian governments, stalkers and hackers. Google is supposed to be staffed by geniuses. Now they have proven they are stupid, arrogant and dangerous. "Don't be evil"? That's over.
Not taking sides here but Google just rolled out an update to Buzz that did away with the auto-follow and instead offers up a follow "suggestions" list so the user can decide who to follow or not.
Google is hardly the only one to take too many liberties in user privacy when it comes to social apps. Facebook, in their previous makeover set all privacy settings wide open to everything and everybody, completely disregarding the user's previous privacy settings. They threw up a "New Facebook page" type of information window that put all the new changes in privacy settings into the "fine print" that most Facebook users didn't noticed.
Okay, so Google did react rather quickly to it's users about the auto-follow feature of Buzz, a lot more quickly then Facebook ever did about their users concerns. However, I've longed come to the conclusion that these online entities will always try to see how much they can get away with and *then* react to user/customer concerns.
Wow... BUZZ and Text Message Marketing all in one...
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tEXT ALKRAUZA TO 82222
I think the crazy thing here is that there are probably more people with gmail and use gmail only then there are people on all the social networks combined. So in a sense you are right, it is forcing them to adopt social networking for the first time. It's like being thrown in to the real time stream and hope they can swim and just start using it. This kind of mass exposure could really make a huge change in the social media landscape. Makes me wonder if social media follows Moore's law and if this is like one of those major leaps in adoption and availability.
Well I don't really think of buzz or twitter as something I actually interact with. I think I use them rather passively. The only thing I really use everyday is Facebook and my post on there are just automatically sent out to my twitter which then send it to my myspace and linkedin. I will probably just treat buzz the same way, just have some tool that just forwards my facebook status to twitter and then sent to buzz. To be honest I want to someone to just win the real time stream race so we can all just have one source for everything.
We started a topic about the good and bads for it on our review site so feel free to add your thoughts. http://www.baduku.com/topics/google-buzz_217
I'd like theatlantic.com to credit me when it 'borrows' my images.
http://schuhlelewis.blogspot.com/2010/01/there-are-59-skulls-in-this-image.html
http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2010/02/as-we-were-all-mesmerized-by-palin.html
Another step for the big G when it comes to complete Internet domination!
Chai
Never afraid to try anything new, I went to my Google account this morning and set up my Google Buzz. I have to say, though, that it’s been a big disappointment so far.
I suppose Google is still working out the teething problems of this new service, but here’s what I have found:
* Profile settings don’t take. In your Buzz profile, you can select other social-media services like Twitter that you want to import and update in Buzz. I selected Twitter, but nothing showed. What is more, my profile would constantly show “2 services connected”, even though Twitter was the only one. I have no clue what that second service is supposed to be. Even after saving and saving again the settings, the profile still shows “2 services connected”.
* The Twitter import came in only hours later, at 7:52 pm my time, but only the ten most recent tweets had been imported. Since then, nothing, no more updates from my Twitter account.
* When you’re prompted to look for people you’d like to follow, you are, of course, limited to those with a Google account. But the keyword search of Google profiles seems flawed. For example, I looked for people in Calgary with an interest in politics. You’d think this would bring up all those with a Google Blogger.com account. No, the search yielded only about seven or eight profiles, and none of them was a political blogger in Calgary (or Alberta, for that matter). I know for a fact that when you sign up for a Blogger.com account to start and publish a blog, Google creates a Google account for you at the same time. There is no way the search results are accurate, because the search should have produced a long list of Alberta bloggers (I’d say at least 80 to 90 percent of bloggers listed on AlbertaBlogs use Blogger.com, but none of them was included in the search results).
At this point, the “face-off” with Facebook or Twitter is still light-years away.
"Google Buzz won't necessarily be the keystone in that strategy, but it will help ad logarithms continue to nail down who Google customers are, and what they want to see -- and buy."
I don't think there is a better way to display how blatantly unqualified you are to talk about a (mildly) technical subject than to refer to an algorithm as a logarithm.
These replies are even better:
"They are code that scan the content of the message and determine a relevant text Ad to be shown nearby in the window. very clever targeted advertising."
"The weakness of these logarithms is that they cannot handle political advertising (which is often negative)."
Logarithms were covered in high school math. Seriously.
Try taking the log of a negative number and maybe you'll get the joke. Here's a hint: it's "complex".