Google moves into social networking with Buzz

Google Buzz interacts with YouTube, Flickr, Picasa, Blogger and Twitter to share media

Google, as anticipated yesterday, has announced a move into the social networking sphere with a new platform for Gmail users called Google Buzz.

Buzz uses Gmail contacts to build a social network that interacts with YouTube, Flickr, Picasa, Blogger and Twitter to share media.

A mobile version of Buzz also interacts with GPS to allow the sharing of geo-tagging information, and users can see whether anyone on Buzz has made a comment about a place or business nearby.

Google said that an enterprise version would be released very shortly, and that the search firm is already using a version internally, which Google co-founder Sergey Brin described as "very compelling" and a real boost to productivity.

"Social services on the internet have evolutions. This is another very compelling evolution, a meeting of social networking and productivity," he said.

"Past services have focused on friends and entertainment, but we have seen a huge amount of productivity from using Google Buzz internally."

Tod Jackson, product manager for Google Buzz, argued that, while social networking is a great platform, the amount of information users need to process can be overwhelming and some is getting lost as networks get too large.

"Organising social information on the web is a Google-sized problem, a problem of the type Google likes to solve," he said.

Google will apply its search technology to the data generated by social networks, and filter and refine it, according to Jackson. The company will also recommend material, and monitor the user's acceptance or rejection of posts to refine the data they get in the future.

Users can also set up more private custom groups to suit different needs, and post to one or all. All posts will be recorded on a user profile hosted by Google.

Buzz has been integrated with Google's existing location applications for mobile use, and the interface with GPS phones allows users to show where they are online and post comments directly from other users locally.

"Maybe you're at a concert and want to know other attendees' feelings, or you're going out for dinner and want feedback on a restaurant. You can find out which has the most interesting buzz by seeing what people around you are saying, " said Vic Gundotra, vice president of engineering at Google.

Google stressed that Buzz is still very much a work in progress, and that there will be numerous upgrades and revisions based on feedback. In particular, the firm hinted that Google Voice and Google Wave could be added.

Invitations to join Buzz will be rolled out to all Gmail users over the next few days.

More analysis of the press conference can be found on Silicon Valley Sleuth.