Buzz Buzz. Hello World? Google here…
I swear, I think Google is naming its pet projects specifically for tech journalism across the globe to be able to compete in a giant game of “corniest headlines ever”. First there was Wave, now Buzz, what’s next, maybe Google Gush? It can be an international repository of globally-relevant PR material…
Seriously though, just how quickly is Google falling over itself these days to tap into new markets? As if owning the world’s search and email habits wasn’t enough, Buzz aims to tackle the social media revolution, shall we say, face to face. And blast a hole through Twitters side while they’re about it. It is, typical of a Google solution, ambitious.
When you also add this experimental 1Gbps fiber-optic connection the company is reportedly rolling-out to “test homes” across the US and Europe, it does start coming together.
You’d be able to interact with the world in every possible way, using a PC or better still Android-based smartphone, without ever having to leave the Google network of services.
And with its open approach to the global IP network, this could work. Even if your contacts haven’t actually migrated away from Twitter and Facebook, Google Buzz will by then likely be happy to grab streams from these services and just integrate them into the decidedly Wave-like Gmail-based interface.
But you can bet your bottom dollar that, in addition to the pure profitability of all-but owning a user’s internet experience and activity, Google is expanding so quickly and in so many different directions with the objective of becoming the intrinsic underlying Web, and by extension cloud software platform, provider for the next-generation of always-connected users and their devices.
If we just count up, currently Google is providing email, search, instant messaging, browsing, calendaring, online productivity suites, mapping and navigation, social networking integration, a global collaborative workflow environment, a practically device-agnostic cloud-heavy operating system, and finally experimental high-capacity fiber links direct to the consumers home.
That’s more than a killer app. It’s a killer platform.
As far as taking over the world goes, well that I can’t really comment on as a simple tech journalist.
But in terms of your daily ICT requirements, yes all the bases are pretty much covered already. Without a doubt, if you continue to make use of computing in any form, Google will continue to be a critical element of your daily operations, potentially even a turnkey provider of all your needs. They’re even building their own smartphones now, their presence leaking even into the hardware itself.
I think the term “going to take over the world”, at least in the computing sense, is a touch far-sighted. They’re doing so already.
But it works, so we the users are happy. Why be concerned about an outcome like that, better to grow that outlook into new pivotal arenas than box it in for fear of efficiency actually infecting more areas.
Yes, a single day after its introduction, Google Buzz isn’t exactly, well, humming along sweetly just yet.
But it’s there, and people will start figuring out how to capitalise on it. And before you know it it’ll have grown to be your one-stop aggregator of all your social media interactions.
That’s Google’s real trick, quietly and without marketing fuss or hullabaloo moving insidiously from questionable techie platform to ubiquitous daily-use communications standard for the internet-using masses.
Karma says that the universe will replace what is lost with something new, and it’s now clear with the death of the company hailed as a herald of the initial Internet explosion Sun Microsystems, that Google has stepped into these sizeable shoes some time ago.
In fact, Google has finished extensive renovations and expansion of said footwear to provide the truly converged platform of the future of global communications, information and collaboration.
The terminally adverse to change are already claiming that Buzz isn’t going to be another Google success story, based on the supposed “failure” of Wave.
I think they’re fooling themselves, predicting the future based on monopolistic prejudices and a single day of tentative exploration. I think it’ll become as huge, widespread and critical an element in the overall weave of the Web as google.com itself.
Google Buzz << a challenger to Twitter & Facebook?
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