Google Buzz goes after Facebook, Twitter

Google plunged into the world of social networking on Tuesday, melding pieces of Facebook and Twitter into a new feature, Google Buzz.

Buzz, which will work through the popular Gmail service, 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 all in the next couple of days, aims to weed out what he called the clutter of other networking sites.

With networking sites, "there's obviously value there," he 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."

By letting users post photos, links and updates openly, the tool would mimic Twitter's micro-blogging format. But users also will be able to make their content available to "friends only," more closely following the Facebook model.

At an event at the company's Mountain View, California, headquarters, Google also seemed poised to take a poke at the AOL Instant Messenger service, saying Buzz will be offered to companies as a tool for interoffice communication.

"It will change the way businesses communicate around the world," Horowitz said.

Despite the inevitable comparisons, Google spokesmen said they didn't set out to tread on anyone else's turf.

"We try not to pay too much attention to competitors," Gmail product manager Todd Jackson said. "We try to listen to users."

Horowitz said Google Buzz will automatically make "friends" out of the people a user e-mails or chats with the most on Gmail.

Comments on posts will appear in real time. And comments by other users will be weighted, similar to how Google's search engine weighs results, to "collapse bad buzz and recommend the good buzz," Jackson said.

The hands-down leader in the search engine world, Google has been branching out on projects that include its Nexus One smartphone, the company's first foray into hardware marketing.

Late last month, Google announced that people could tweak their accounts to make results related to friends, co-workers and other members of their social networks appear above all other results.

The Social Search feature was introduced to a limited number of Google users last year and was made available to everyone in beta status on January 28.

The change came with a hint of more things to come.

"This is just a first step in our ongoing effort to ensure that Google Web search is always as social as the Web itself," the company said in an instructional video posted to its official blog.

Google Buzz probably won't be able to bring in status updates and other materials from Facebook for the same reason that Social Search doesn't.

Because most Facebook users set their information to be viewed only by friends, Google's search engine can't collect that information in the same way it can from Twitter and, obviously, Google-owned sites like YouTube.

Buzz also will have a mobile component, operating on most major wireless operating systems with features that include voice-recognition posting and a GPS-enabled ability to attach the user's location to posts.

The Web-based mobile application, which can be used by iPhones despite not going through Apple's online store, can also be set to pick up posts to Buzz being made near the user's location.

Changes to the tool could be coming quickly, too. Google officials say they're already studying possible expansions. They include allowing Buzz updates by phone, letting users post to their Twitter account through the tool and linking Buzz with the still-emerging Google Wave system.

"We're just getting started," Horowitz said. "We're not launching this today because we think we're done. We don't think that's how a product like this is built."

Original artical by cnn

Google's 'Social' Gmail: Could It Really Work?

Gmail, meet Twitter.

Google is preparing to unveil a new social networking component for its Gmail Web service, according to reports published Monday. The service, The Wall Street Journal says, would add tweet-like status updates into the Gmail interface. It could be announced as early as this week.

As generally happens anytime we get a glimpse at a new tech product, people are already rushing to label the social Gmail concept as a "Twitter-killer." (Following that same logic, by the way, I'm pretty sure the Nexus One killed the Droid, which killed the iPhone, which killed the Nintendo DS, and so on. For all this technology-killing going on, there sure seem to be an awful lot of things still out there.)

Homicidal digressions aside, could a social Gmail really work? Ultimately, it all depends upon the connections.

Gmail Gets Social

First, here's what we unofficially know so far about Google's potential social Gmail setup (Google's spokespeople have yet to comment on the reports):

• Gmail will supposedly gain a stream of "media and status updates" within its Web-based interface.

• Users would be encouraged to use the stream to "post and view messages about their day-to-day activities."

• Users would see information only from people with whom they choose to connect.

• The updates could eventually include info shared from YouTube and Picasa as well.

The reports compare the social networking concept to the status update system already present in Gmail's chat feature. As with most instant messaging platforms, the Gmail chat feature allows you to set a status that users on your friend list can see. The new social Gmail platform, The Wall Street Journal reports, will "aggregate updates from more friends" into a single stream. It's not clear if those updates would be tied directly to the Gmail chat statuses or whether they'd be something completely separate.

Gmail and Social Connections

When considering any kind of social Gmail system, I think the real question is whether the service will attempt to create something new or to centralize something old. In this case, the latter may be preferable. YouTube and Picasa integration, after all, are fine -- but would that be enough to convince you to get on-board? We're already facing a serious bout of social network overkill; there are simplyfar too many different sites to keep up with as it is, and the last thing we need is one more destination to frequent.

How a Gmail social service could fill a relevant void would be by creating a convenient way to manage the existing noise. Sure, you've got options likeTweetDeck and Ping.fm , but let's be honest: Outside of us techies, far more people are familiar with Google and Gmail than with these kinds of niche-oriented offerings.

A clean and simple service that'd integrate updates from Facebook, Twitter, and other social services into Gmail could gain some solid traction (and might actually be rather handy, too). If it could somehow leverageGmail's spam-filtering capabilities to cut through Twitter's junk -- er, sorry, "social media expertise" -- hey, that'd be icing on the cake.

Google's Social Moves

Realistically, any kind of cross-platform integration may be a long shot. Google has been slowly but steadily building its own army of social services over the past months. The company even hired a handful of social media veterans earlier this year, one of whom told CNET the social media realm was set to be one of Google's "big focuses for 2010." The goal, he said: getting there "faster and better."

So will Google's alleged Gmail social service be another Orkut, or will it give us something we'll actually use? Ladies and gentlemen, place your bets. Google has a media event scheduled for Tuesday, so odds are, we'll learn the answer very soon.

Original articl by PCworld

Facebook’s Project Titan: A Full Featured Webmail Product

Facebook is completely rewriting their messaging product and is preparing to launch a fully featured webmail product in its place, according to a source with knowledge of the product. Internally it’s known as Project Titan. Or, unofficially and perhaps over-enthusiastically, the Gmail killer.

Facebook messaging has been the bane of users’ existence for years. My first public gripe was in 2008, when I said that urgent changes were needed. The biggest problem is simply deleting old emails. It takes so long that I have thousands of unread and read but not deleted messages in my inbox.

But Facebook messaging is also only indirectly linked to the email, which is still the standard way that people exchange digital messages when not on Facebook.

Facebook has occasionally dabbled with improvements to messaging, like adding the ability to search messages. But for the most part it has remained static. And not very useful.

Even MySpace moved away from their aging messaging platform to a true webmail service in 2008 (albeit one that lacked POP or IMAP support).

But now Facebook is getting itself back in the game. And if the details we’ve heard are accurate, Project Titan, or whatever it’s called when it launches, may be the kind of product people flock to.

First, our understanding is that there will be full POP/IMAP support, meaning users can access the account other than through Facebook itself. Your email account name will be your technologya – technologya@facebook.com.

Email is all about identity. And Facebook is ahead of everyone else in the identity game via Facebook Connect. Facebook says more than 60 million people log in to 80,000 third party websites each month via Facebook Connect.

Tacking a real webmail product on top of those vanity URLs and Facebook connect is something even Google may shudder at. Gmail killer? I don’t think so. But a strong product move nonetheless.

Original artical by techcrunch