Will Google Buzz change the face of social engagement?
Yesterday, I wrote about my dream of a unified social platform that’s as versatile and intuitive as e-mail. Google Buzz doesn’t appear to be that platform (full disclosure: I don’t have access yet, I’m reacting to the coverage of others), but it does have several intriguing features.
Google Buzz makes a few tentative steps toward integrating social networks — you can link it to Twitter, for example, but the information doesn’t travel both ways. But the real meat of Google Buzz comes from its attempts at filtering out irrelevant information.
We’re all at least a little bogged down with social connections we don’t really care about — and even our most important contacts sometimes say irrelevant things. A filter to handle that chatter could be useful — provided it’s as smart as, say, the new Netflix recommendation engine instead of being as infuriatingly random as Facebook’s News Feed can be.
Filters like this are only going to become smarter and more prevalent. This poses an interesting problem for marketers. It’s not going to be good enough to get someone to follow your company’s account on a network — you’ll have to be relevant enough to be included in the smaller pool of messages they actually see. It’s the difference between getting someone’s attention for an instant and forming an engaged relationship. Yes, there will be social-optimization tools and experts to help improve your campaign’s yield. But on a certain level, you’ll have to make users actually care if you want to be in their inner circle. It wouldn’t surprise me if that innovation ended up being what Google Buzz was remembered for.
Were you impressed by Google Buzz? Will it change the face of social engagement? What does Google need to do to make it a truly vital social platform?
Image credit, dlerick , via iStock
Posted by uberVU - social comments on February 10th, 2010 at 10:06 am
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Posted by Bill Masson on February 10th, 2010 at 6:41 pm
In short yes,it will provide more options to get involved in social networking. I just love it and mobile or home users will too. It's a pity that you can't integrate it with FaceBook but you can still do so through Twitter
Posted by Cory Grassell on February 11th, 2010 at 2:34 pm
While it may provide another option, I think it's a desperate attempt by Google to compete with the social giants. This is not the first attempt by Google to enter the social arena (and most of its past attempts failed miserably). Is this Google's way of saving face after negotiations/deals with several social sites fell through? Don't get me wrong, I love Google. I use it every day. But what bothers me about the search company is that it has to have its hands in everything, rather than focus on making what it does so well even better.
Posted by Natalie on February 11th, 2010 at 3:06 pm
Relevancy is a filter that will naturally occur whether Google masters it or not. Marketers should view it as opportunity to define their message. Your message may be seen by a smaller pool, but this group will likely value your information.
Posted by JDeragon on February 13th, 2010 at 9:41 pm
The fundamental value being created by all this noise lies in people enabled to connect, communicate and collaborate around anything and everything. The human network thrives in environments that enable learning, sharing, communicating and doing so with the aim of fulfilling intentions. The evidence of this is clear when you consider what, where, how, when and why so many people are using all things social. Google, Facebook and Twitter are just the utilities of the moment and while drawing people in the real value will be when the people will be able to fulfill their intentions without be contained in silo's whose aim is an economic return using old models of production and commerce.
The new models of production and commerce will be enabled as technology advances and the people will be enabled to communicate, collaborate, learn, share and create commerce through a much easier and simplistic way of fulfilling intentions. The internet will evolve and become transparent when the current players tear down the walls that create waste, rework and reduced value for we the people simply looking to fulfill our individual intents.
When the walls of communications, collaborations and transactions with intent are removed the people will fuel productivity, commerce and the overall economy. Then and only then will social engagement change.Simple yet challenging for a world that thinks building silos and capturing people's intent is a productive model for business. Give people freedom and you'll be surprised what they will do with it. Just look at history.
Most likely the change will come from something and someone small whose intentions are to serve the people rather than the institution.
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Posted by iPhone Developer UK on October 7th, 2010 at 11:58 pm
I think Google Buzz Completely Flop for users