I expected Google to get a direct interest into Facebook (less on Twitter, whom yet i don’t get it) and that because the sheer amount of potential advertising revenue. It came to late into the game and now Facebook is hugely expensive to be consider for a buyout.
That’s why, I eagerly tested Google Buzz to see what they got out of it. Firstly, it’s like Facebook + Twitter = Google Buzz where followers have met at the Facebook wall. Funny, Google Buzz is the first Google product that I see without the “Beta” tag and has errors. Second, I am quite disappointed by its functionality. Is much more obscure than Facebook or Twitter where finding friends or seeing their wall is much easier, doesn’t have a search functionality (how come this is a problem for Google?!) and it doesn’t work. I added a “Buzz friend” and i cannot see his Wall or something. As it wasn’t enough, the generated links are pure silly http://www.google.com/buzz/111721254259311809312/cnduB3f48Ry/Sending-my-first-Buzz (That’s actually my Buzz link!)
Furthermore, i think the biggest problem for Google Buzz is not the functionality (which can be fixed) but the branding. Google Buzz succeeds at breaking two rules: the rule of Extension and the rule of Sub-Brands. It extended the brand of GMail over a new functionality and it created Google Buzz as a sub-brand of GMail. This doesn’t work and it has been seen in the past in the Yahoo Y!360 network based on the Yahoo Messenger user base and the Microsoft MSN (social) Network based on MSN Messenger. Fail, fail, fail…
There is also a problem on how each of us have constructed their GMail account. How many of us associate GMail or the generic mail with social networking? Some of us use GMail as a professional email address, some as a contact for family & relatives or some as a general email address. How many of us are confident to start using an account that so far has been used to send “directly-addressed” information, to now make our daily rambling public to our professional contacts, close family or others that have come into our email contacts.
However… there is a chance for Google Buzz to step into enterprise mail market where now the masters are Microsoft Exchange and SharePoint. That’s one area where their product might have a success, but not on the general social web.
