WebProNews

Tag: Google Buzz

  • Google Buzz Is About To Be Dead. Wait, What? Google Buzz Was Still Alive?

    Google has sent an email around to Google Buzz users about their data from the service, which the company announced would be shutting down back in October 2011.

    If you’re like me, you were probably surprised to get an email about a service you haven’t thought about in a long time, but Google may still have your data from Buzz, and you have until July 17th to get it out. This is the date, the email informs, that Google will take the last step in shutting down Buzz for good.

    Google suggests users save a copy of their Buzz posts to Google Drive, assuming you really care what happens to your Buzz posts. Google says it will store two types of files to Drive. One type is private, and contains a snapshot of the Google Buzz public and private posts you authored. The second type contains a copy of only your public Buzz posts, and by default, will be viewable by anyone with the link, which may appear in search results on your Google Profile (if you’ve linked to your Buzz posts).

    Neither file type will count against your storage limits, Google says.

    “Any comments you made on other users’ posts will only be saved to those users’ files and not to yours,” Google explains. “Once the change described in this email is final, only that user will be able to change the sharing settings of those files. This means that if you have commented on another author’s private post, that author could choose to make that post and its comments public. If you would like to avoid that possibility, delete all your Buzz content now.”

    The new files will only contain comments from users that previously enabled Buzz, and they won’t contain comments that were deleted before moving the data to Drive. When the files are created, they will be treated just like any other Drive file, in that you can do whatever you want to with them.

    If you want to take a look at your old Buzz posts, you can do so at http://profiles.google.com/me/buzz.

  • Report: Google Sued Again Over Google Buzz Privacy

    MediaPost is reporting that three Gmail users filed a lawsuit against Google this week in relation to privacy violations from the Google Buzz launch.

    Google Buzz, in case your memory of Internet happenings doesn’t extend that far back, was an earlier attempt of Google’s at social media, launched about a year and a half before Google+ came out. It was introduced as part of Gmail, and launched to a huge backlash over privacy issues.

    Google officially killed off Buzz in October of 2011, when it was listed along with Code Search, Jaiku and some iGoogle social features as products that Google would stop supporting.

    “Changing the world takes focus on the future, and honesty about the past,” said Google’s Bradley Horowitz at the time. “We learned a lot from products like Buzz, and are putting that learning to work every day in our vision for products like Google+.”

    That same month, the Federal Trade Commission finalized a settlement with Google over Buzz, which it had announced earlier that year. It resolved Google of charges that it used deceptive tactics and violated privacy promises to consumers, but barred the company from future privacy “misrepresentations” and required Google to implement a “comprehensive privacy program,” and called for independent privacy audits for 20 years.

    Even since then, Google has run into privacy issues with the FTC over the whole Safari-gate debacle, which saw Google paying $22.5 million.

    Google had previously agreed to pay $8.5 million to settle class-action litigation regarding Google Buzz. According to MediaPost, this week’s claimants objected to that settlement, and filed new court papers with the Eastern District of New York. Apparently one of them also is looking to represent a class of 500 other users who opted out of the initial settlement.

  • Google Buzz Is Still Part Of The Twitter Conversation

    I’m not going to lie. I kind of wanted an excuse to try out Twitter’s new embeddable timelines, but I couldn’t help but notice that there still seems to be an odd amount of mentions of Google Buzz going through Twitter even today, nearly a year after its official demise.

    Why are so many people tweeting about Google Buzz?


    I will also use this opportunity to point out some shortcomings of Twitter’s widget. There are actually a lot more tweets mentioning Google Buzz happening, but it’s not displaying them all in the widget. If you select “all” on a Twitter search for “google buzz,” you’ll see a fair amount more. I’d like to see Twitter give you the option to include “top” tweets or “all” tweets, as it does from the search itself.

    It does kind of put it into perspective just how much tweeting is going on these days. If I can easily find this many people talking about a product that has been dead for nearly a year, and isn’t in the news (other than perhaps a mention in regards to Google’s other privacy battles), there really must be an incredible amount of conversation (or at least textual input) happening on this social network/microblogging service.

    Furthermore, this re-emphasizes a point I’ve made in previous articles about why Google really needs to get that Twitter firehose back if it truly wants to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible. It becomes obvious in searches for developing news stories, but this even shows that Google is lacking the current conversation about history.

    Something more significant than Google Buzz would surely illustrate this even better.

    But even in this case, I can clearly see that Google, despite its increased emphasis on freshness in search results of late, isn’t showing me the current conversation about Google Buzz in a search for “google buzz,” even with the appropriate search refinements. I’m not seeing updates like this in such a search:

  • Google’s Horowitz Talks About Moving On From Buzz

    As you may have heard, Google announced that it will be shutting down Google Buzz. The truth is, many of us have been waiting for Google to make the move.

    Even when Google gave webmasters the +1 button to add to their sites, we quickly saw it substituted for many Google Buzz buttons. In July, Google was already shutting down some of its own Buzz accounts in favor of Google+ accounts.

    Google VP, Product Bradley Horowtiz said Buzz and the Buzz API will be shut down in a few weeks, and that while people won’t be able to create new posts, they’ll be able to view their existing content on their Google Profile, and download it with Google Takeout.

    Horowitz later shed some more light on the closing of Buzz in a Google+ update:

    What did we learn from Buzz? Plenty. We learned privacy is not a feature… it is foundational to the product. And this awareness gave us the resolve to design privacy in from the very beginning, which led to Circles for sharing the right information with the right people, as well as transparency around which parts of your profile can be seen by whom. We also learned how compelling it is to have meaningful conversations with interesting people, which we’re happy to see happening all the time in Google+.

    But probably the best lesson we learned is about how to introduce a product. We started very slowly with Google+ — in a limited Field Trial – in order to listen and learn and gather plenty of real-world feedback. Your participation in the process is helping create what Google+ is today.

    So why retire Buzz now? Well, we think the time has come for us to focus our energy on projects that will have the most impact to the most users. And creating these great products requires great focus. With the majority of Buzz users now here on Google+, it became obvious that all of our attention should be focused on this community.

    It seems as though Google has put a lot more time and energy into Google+ in the short time it’s been around than it has in Google Buzz’s entire time of existence (which is isn’t really all that long itself). As Larry Page talked up Google+ in the company’s earnings call the other day, he referenced “100 features in 90 days”.

    Buzz may have been the butt of more than a few jokes, but it is clear that it will be missed by some. That much is evident from perusing the comments on Horowitz’s post. A few examples:

    Florian Rohrweck: Buzz was a great product… I loved it from day one and I will miss it

    Brian Wisti: I’ll miss Buzz. It had a strong enough API that there was a useful third party iPhone app for it: Buzzooka. I also miss other stuff: the looser handling of things like user names, the integration into GMail and Reader.

    Brian Johnson: 2 things I miss a lot from Buzz — Buzz/Maps integration and the ability to share from Reader directly to Buzz. I loved the ability to go into Maps and see the public Buzzes from around the area — it was fun and allowed you a way to find new people to interact with. And, well, the Reader integration speaks for itself.

    Most, however, seem to acknowledge that they expected Buzz to end sooner or later, and look forward to Google+ growing and getting better. Of course, these are the people that are already using Google+. Google+ has its fair share of skeptics as well.

    Will you miss Google Buzz?

  • Google Buzz Gets Killed, Along with Code Search, Jaiku, iGoogle Social Features

    When Google launched Google+, it didn’t take long for some of us to speculate about the demise of Google Buzz. Now, we don’t have to speculate much more because Google has come out and said they’re shutting it down, along with a few other services.

    “In a few weeks we’ll shut down Google Buzz and the Buzz API, and focus instead on Google+,” says Google VP, Product Bradley Horowtiz in a blog post. “While people obviously won’t be able to create new posts after that, they will be able to view their existing content on their Google Profile, and download it using Google Takeout.”

    “Changing the world takes focus on the future, and honesty about the past,” he says. “We learned a lot from products like Buzz, and are putting that learning to work every day in our vision for products like Google+. Our users expect great things from us; today’s announcements let us focus even more on giving them something truly awesome.”

    The other services Google is shutting down include: Code Search, Jaiku, iGoogle’s social features and the University Research Program for Google Search. These will all be shut down on January 15.

    iGoogle itself, and non-social iGoogle apps will stay the same.

    Google is also officially closing the Google Labs site today, as previously announced. Boutiques.com and Like.com will be replaced by Google Product Search, also as previously announced.

    Will you miss any of the products Google is shutting down? Let us know in the comments.

  • Is Google+ Killing Google Buzz?

    Ordinarily, I don’t go for the one thing killing another conversation, but in this case, it’s two products from the same company, and one with some possibly unneeded redundancies. Combine that with the fact that Google has a history of pulling services altogether and the company’s need for Google+ to work, I don’t think the “killing” of Buzz is entirely outside the realm of possibility.

    I was looking through some Google Buzz updates last night (I know, right?), and happened across an update from Google Research:

    Once Google+ supports “entity” accounts, and invitations are open to the public, Google Research Buzz will become Google Research+! For now, please keep following us here or on Twitter.

    Interesting. Is Google going to abandon more of its Buzz accounts in favor of Google+ accounts? Perhaps the better question is: is Google going to abandon Google Buzz in favor of Google+?

    Here’s what Google has said about it so far:

    “Google+ won’t have any major impact on Buzz right now. Buzz users will still see a Buzz tab on their Google profile, and Buzz will continue working as it always has. Google+ users can also be Buzz users or can decide to just share their content using one of the products. Over time, we’ll determine what makes the most sense in terms of integrating the products.”

    When the Google +1 button came out for websites, many sites immediately started ditching the Google Buzz buttons in favor of them. Not the greatest sign for the future of Buzz.

    Probably one of the biggest things Buzz has going for it is that it is right in the Gmail inbox, which can keep Gmail users checking out their streams, but Google is also looking to get Google+ more integrated with Gmail, so as that happens, the need for Buzz might become smaller and smaller.

    In fact, in a Google+ hangout with the Gmail team the other day, users suggested the merger of Buzz and Google+.

    As it stands right now, Google’s social offerings could be a little confusing for users. I talked about this more here. They may need to do a bit of consolidating and integrating more tightly of Buzz, +1, and Google+.

    What do you think? Is Buzz on the way out?

  • Is Google’s +1 Button Killing Google Buzz Already?

    Google Buzz has never lived up to Google’s hopes for the service. That seems pretty clear now. Much like the ill-fated Google Wave, it launched to much hype (not to mention privacy concerns), but for the most part fizzled out in terms of user interest.

    Even Buzz users (I count myself among them, to some extent) aren’t exactly radiating with enthusiasm for the service, and quite frankly, Google has done little in the way of enhancing the service since its launched.

    Now here comes the Google +1 Button, Google’s latest social sharing button, which has a direct impact on search rankings. Clearly webmasters and publishers have greater incentive to use this than they do Google Buzz, especially considering the ongoing challenges of SEO and ever-changing Google algorithm.

    Today, Google launched the +1 button for websites, and sites all over the place are already ditching the Buzz button on their content in favor of the +1 button. Prior to the release, we wondered if site owners would find room for both, and it appears that many are not.

    Plenty of industry publications have already made their decisions. TechCrunch, Mashable, and Search Engine Land, ReadWriteWeb, and we here at WebProNews have already switched out Buzz for +1 on article pages. I’m sure the list of sites goes on and on.

    Google did address this somewhat when the +1 button was announced. “Buzz button[s] are used for starting conversations about interesting web content (‘Hey guys, what do you think about this news story?’),” the company said. “+1 buttons recommend web content to people in the context of search results (‘Peng +1′d this page’), and +1′s from social connections can help improve the relevance of the results you see in Google Search. Soon, you’ll be able to use the +1 button, or the Buzz button, or both—pick what’s right for your content.”

    Apparently site owners are not too concerned about Buzz conversations around their content. I’d wager that Google will address this issue again in the near future.

    Google Buzz still sits in the Gmail inbox. How often it actually gets checked, and by how many people is anybody’s guess.

    It’s entirely possible that Google just effectively put a big nail in the coffin of its last major social attempt. Perhaps not the final nail, but I don’t see any indication that Buzz is gaining any ground. I suppose one positive aspect of this for Buzz is that the +1 shares appear on the Google Profile in a tab next to a Google Buzz tab. Assuming that people actually visit these profiles to look at +1 shares (and that’s a big assumption), they could be reminded of Buzz and see what these same people are “buzzing” about. Chances are that in most cases, they’re simply syndicating updates from other networks like Twitter.

    A privacy group did just win $500,000 from a Google Buzz settlement.

  • Google Buzz Agreement Reached With FTC

    Google Buzz Agreement Reached With FTC

    Google Buzz, the social network built into Gmail, has faced its share of complaints regarding automatic opt-ins and privacy issues.  Last year, Google settled a class action suit by contributing to a fund for organizations involved in internet privacy and education.  Today, the Federal Trade Commission released a statement detailing its own accusations against Google Buzz and outlining an agreement reached with the company.

    The abstract of the statement is that Google violated its own privacy policies and used ‘deceptive tactics” when it launched Google Buzz in 2010.  According to the FTC, when Buzz was integrated into Gmail, users were not given a good enough explanation about how the new social network would operate.  Specifically, controls for limiting the share of personal information were hard to find and trying to leave the network all together was confusing and sometime ineffective.

    According to the FTC, Google opted users into the program automatically, even if the user thought he had opted-out.  They were also concerned with the sharing of users’ email contacts as a default operation of enrollment:

    When Google launched Buzz, its privacy policy stated that “When you sign up for a particular service that requires registration, we ask you to provide personal information. If we use this information in a manner different than the purpose for which it was collected, then we will ask for your consent prior to such use.”  The FTC complaint charges that Google violated its privacy policies by using information provided for Gmail for another purpose – social networking – without obtaining consumers’ permission in advance.

    The agency also alleges that by offering options like “Nah, go to my inbox,” and “Turn Off Buzz,” Google misrepresented that consumers who clicked on these options would not be enrolled in Buzz.  In fact, they were enrolled in certain features of Buzz.

    The complaint further alleges that a screen that asked consumers enrolling in Buzz, “How do you want to appear to others?” indicated that consumers could exercise control over what personal information would be made public.  The FTC charged that Google failed to disclose adequately that consumers’ frequent email contacts would become public by default.

    Whoops.

    The settlement reached disallows Google to make any future privacy misrepresentations (duh), forces them to implement a comprehensive privacy program and subjects them to privacy audits from an independent firm for the next 20 years.  Interestingly, “this is the first time an FTC settlement order has required a company to implement a comprehensive privacy program to protect the privacy of consumers’ information.”

    “When companies make privacy pledges, they need to honor them,” said Jon Leibowitz, Chairman of the FTC.  “This is a tough settlement that ensures that Google will honor its commitments to consumers and build strong privacy protections into all of its operations.”

    On the official Google blog, the company states that although they are big on privacy, sometimes they just don’t get it right:

    We’d like to apologize again for the mistakes we made with Buzz. While today’s announcement thankfully put this incident behind us, we are 100 percent focused on ensuring that our new privacy procedures effectively protect the interests of all our users going forward.

  • No Real Social Media Plan? Try Starting With This.

    Coming up with a social media plan isn’t always the easiest thing to do for businesses. There are so many factors that come into play, even beyond the landscape of communities that actually exist. For example, business leaders need to ask questions like: How much time should be spent interacting with social media sites? How many people should be representing the company on social sites? How much of their time should be dedicated to it? Should it be the full-time job of one person? The full-time jobs of more people? Only part of the job for a lot of people? Etc. Etc. Etc. 

    No matter how much time and how many resources are spent on your brand’s social media presence, more can always be done, so many will have to find they have to be selective in areas of participation and time spent. If your budget and time aren’t as restricted, you can build an enormous social presence around the web in the places that matter. Just remember, more can always be done. We at WebProNews certainly have plenty of room to expand and improve our own social strategy, and chances are you do too. 

    So, with all of that in mind, here are some ideas you can use to build your social presence. 

    Twitter

    1. Post regular Twitter updates everyday. That doesn’t mean spam or post them constantly all day long, but there should be enough regularity to where your followers know you’re there and don’t forget about you. That said, don’t talk just to talk. Have something valuable to say. If you produce content, share your links. Some may not think it’s a good idea just to pump out your own links on Twitter, because it’s "about the conversation", but the way I look at is this: if someone is following me, they’re probably interested in what I have to say. If I’m writing articles, those are in essence, what I have to say. That doesn’t mean that it’s not about the conversation. 

    2. You should engage in conversation on Twitter. Start conversations that don’t necessarily pertain to your own links. Listen to what others are saying, and join conversations with them, regardless of if they are directly related to your brand or not. 

    3. Monitor your brand. Respond to @mentions (good or bad). Respond to direct messages. 

    4. Post pictures and videos using services like TwitPic, TwitVid, Yfrog, etc. These things can help humanize your brand and increase engagement with others. They can be conversation starters. People like visuals. 

    5. Create relevant lists. Create lists of other Twitterers that can provide value to others. You don’t necessarily have to, but it might be a good idea to create a variety of lists for subjects related to your niche. If you have a car blog, for example, you might have a list of car brands, a list of other car bloggers, a list for mechanics, a list of auto part vendors, etc. 

    WebProNews on Twitter

    Facebook

    1. Have a Facebook Page for your brand. If you’re running a business, you need a Page, not just a personal profile. What you do with your personal profile is up to you, but your page should be up, and it should be promoted. 

    2. Post regular updates throughout the day. Just like Twitter, I see nothing wrong with sharing links to your content here if you write articles or blog posts. I should note that this should be actual helpful content though – not just posts about why people should buy your product. Nobody wants to be a fan of a page that does that. 

    3. Respond to comments on your Page. Get involved in conversations. 

    4. Update your photos and videos. You don’t have to use third-party services for this on Facebook. 

    5. Experiment with landing pages for your Facebook Page. It doesn’t have to go right to your wall. You can direct fans to any information you want to provide. 

    6. You can use "notes" to put blog-style content right in Facebook should you choose to do so. 

    7. There is a virtually unlimited number of Facebook apps. Look for ones that might be able to add value to your page and get people engaged in a helpful way. This will also take some experimenting. 

    WebProNews on Facebook

    YouTube (and other video sites)

    1. If you create videos, you need to have them on YouTube and other video sites/networks. This is key for getting your videos out to a wider audience. 

    2. These sites are also communities. Respond to comments and subscribe to others. Make friends in the communities. 

    3. Push subscriptions to your channels. Keeping people subscribed means keeping them engaged as you continue to produce content. This can help build a following. 

    4. Even if you don’t create your own videos, it doesn’t mean that you can’t get involved in conversations and comment on others’ videos. 

    5. You can create "favorites" lists of videos that can be helpful, even if they’re not your videos (similar to the Twitter lists).

    WebProNews on YouTube

    MySpace

    1. MySpace may not be the current flavor of the week, but make no mistake – it’s still got a lot of users. Makes friends on MySpace with like-minded individuals and businesses, and expand your network here. 

    2. Like anything else, keep up with your comments and direct messages, and engage in conversation on and off your own page. 

    3. Have a professional-looking design for your page. 

    4. Highlight your best content. 

    5. Update your page regularly with new status updates, blog entries, videos, etc. 

    Google Buzz

    1. Update Buzz regularly throughout the day with links and general conversation. Basically, treat it similar to Facebook or Twitter. 

    2. Engage in conversation on and off your own Buzz posts. 

    3. Spend some time making your Google Profile (which is connected to Buzz…and appears in Google search results) the best it can be. Provide links to your other profiles. 

    4. Integrate other options that are available and applicable to you (Google Reader sharing, Picasa photos, Orkut, etc.)

    5. You can apply these to other networks like LinkedIn and FriendFeed as well. 

    Digg, Reddit, Delicious, StumbleUpon, etc. 

    1. Share links to others’ content on social bookmarking sites like these regularly. This will help you build a following. 

    2. Have buttons to make your own content easy to share on these sites. 

    3. Engage in conversations in the comments of links you share and links others share on these sites. 

    4. Become friends with others like-minded and interesting people on these networks. 

    Forums

    1. Find relevant topics in forums that are also relevant to your business and get involved in existing conversations. 

    2. Start your own relevant conversations. Don’t just get in there and link to your content. It’s tacky and people will see through it. You can often provide your link in your profile anyway. 

    3. If you have built up enough credibility in a forum, you might be able to share a link of your own from time to time in a legitimate fashion, like for example, if you wrote an article on the topic being discussed that helps to answer a question that is being asked. 

    4. The more actively you engage in useful conversation, the more credibility you will gain, and you can come to be looked upon as an expert in your field. 

    Blogs

    1. If you have a blog, keep up with the comments. Respond and stay involved in the conversations. If people disagree with you, which they often will, don’t make a big deal about it or try to prove them wrong. You might just be driving them away. Keep it constructive. Respectfully disagree and maybe elaborate on why you stand by your position, or if they change your mind, maybe tell them you hadn’t looked at things that way. 

    2. Take the time to participate in conversation on other relevant blogs. You can basically think of blog comments as mini forums. The same rules pretty much apply. 

    Photos

    1. As I said, people like visuals, especially current users of sites like Flickr and Picasa. Update photo sites regularly. Again, this can help humanize your brand and even open you up to different audiences. 

    2. Participate in conversations in comments on and off of your own photos. 

    3. Promote your presence on these sites. On your own site/blog, maybe have some links pointing to these accounts.

    The Right Person/People for the Job

    1. You want to make sure you have the right person or people representing your brand in all of these communities. You don’t want someone that doesn’t really understand your company’s vision or position  to be out there giving people the wrong impression. 

    2. Whoever is representing your brand should have a grasp on current news and strategies related to what your business provides. In other words, they should be knowledgeable. It wouldn’t hurt for the people involved to have a designated amount of time each day just reading news. 

    Finally, just keep everything up to date and current. Don’t let profiles go sour. Don’t let comments, questions, and messages sit there to rot. You’ve got to keep up with it all. So, with that in mind, don’t bite off more than you can chew in social media. Look at how much of this you actually want to do, and plan time and resources accordingly. 

    This is by no means all that can be done. There are plenty of other communities I didn’t mention, and probably a great deal more strategies that I didn’t touch upon. I think the things mentioned in this article should be a good start though. 

    What did I leave out that you would add? Please do so in the comments. 

  • Need More Traffic to Your Content? You Might Try a Tool Like This.

    You know how Facebook’s "like" buttons, retweet buttons, and various other social sharing buttons can help drive traffic to your site? ShareThis has launched a widget that site owners, particularly ones who put out a lot of content, may find useful for driving traffic and engagement with that content. 

    Publishers can set the widget to show only articles on the same topics as what’s covered by their site, or perhaps more importantly (as far as driving traffic is concerned), only other articles from their own site. Publishers will be able to take advantage of the ShareThis algorithms to have the widget display top trending content from their domain (or popular topics in general if they choose).

    "The widget is also useful for readers, as it allows them to find more info on their favorite topics, share it with their friends, and see what else their friends are reading and talking about — all in one place," says ShareThis Community Manager Steve Ragan. It will show readers what their friends are sharing across Facebook, Twitter, and Google Buzz, and they can share content with any of those from the widget as well. 

    Trending Content Widget from ShareThis

    "There’s nothing else out there that takes this approach to social sharing, share velocity or trends," says Ragan.

    The widget has the potential to be very useful for driving traffic. In some ways it might be more helpful than Facebook’s social plugins. The fact that it features not only Facebook, but Twitter and Buzz is one obvious advantage (nobody’s saying you should stop using Facebook’s stuff too). 

    The biggest problem I see with the widget is that it is one more thing to clutter up your site. There are so many social, sharing tools out there, it can get to be overkill. If you’re already using a bunch of them. It’s probably a good idea to evaluate which ones are effective and which are just taking up precious space. That said, this widget might serve as a good replacement or complement to what you’ve already got. 

    If you’re not a publisher, you might think a tool like this won’t help you. All you need to be a publisher is a blog, and there are plenty of reasons why any business can benefit from one of those. Facebook is showing how important content is. We discussed why blogging is more critical than ever here. Perhaps video might work better for you. Google TV is going to make a huge impact on the web. Are you ready for that? 

  • Share Private Picasa Web Albums Privately with Buzz Followers

    Google Buzz now lets you share private Picasa Web Albums privately. When you create a private album, the people you choose to share with will see a notification in Google Buzz.
     
    "It used to be all or nothing when it came to sharing a new Picasa Web Album in Buzz," says Jonathan Sposato of Google’s Photos Team. "If you created a public album in Picasa Web Albums, it created a public Google Buzz post. That was great for when you wanted to share your photos broadly. But for those times when you wanted to share with a smaller circle — no Buzz."
     
    Now that’s changed.
     

     

    "Just make sure you have Picasa Web Album as one of your connected sites in Buzz to take advantage of this easy way to share your albums," he says.

     

    Google CEO Eric Schmidt made comments this week at the company’s Zeitgeist event, indicating that Google would be adding more social layers to more of its core products. He may not have specifically had this feature in mind,  but it still has to be considered an example of this philosophy, and of the further integration among Google products that turns Google itself into that much more of a full featured social network.

  • Buzz Makes Move to Generate More User Interest

    Twitter recently launched some new features for suggesting users to follow. The more people of interest you have to follow, the more useful you’re bound to find the service. The same applies to Google Buzz, which is probably why Google decided to release a similar feature.

    A Buzz Post from the Google Buzz Team says:

    One of the things we’ve heard from avid Buzz users is that you’re interested in finding more good people to follow. So starting today, the next time you load up the Buzz tab in Gmail, you may see just that: suggestions for new people you might be interested in following.

    These suggestions are based on your frequent email/chat contacts, your public connections on other networks, and their activity on Google Buzz. Only people who have public Google profiles will appear as suggestions. If you see a suggestion you like, you can choose to follow them right from there. If you never want to see a suggestion for a particular person again, click "Ignore."

    Who to Follow on Buzz

    Buzz has been the subject of a great deal of criticism and skepticism since its launch. Once Google announced it was shutting down Google Wave, many began to predict that Google Buzz wouldn’t be too far behind. Google hasn’t shown any signs thus far that this will be the case. In fact, the company has been making moves (most notably with the Buzz API) to make the service more useful and better ensure it has a future.

    How long that future lasts remains to be seen, but I wouldn’t expect it to go away anytime soon.

    Do you think Buzz will survive? Tell us what you think.

  • Google Adds Features to the Google Buzz API

    Google has released a "garden hose" for Google Buzz. This is a random sampling of public Google Buzz posts for developers who don’t have the required resources to support the traffic that comes with the firehose.

    The garden hose has a query rate under the free quote limit of Google App Engine, Google says. "As such, many more developers will be able to easily get their hands dirty on this great source of real-time data," says Google’s Eric Steinlauf.

    XHTML Version of Google Buzz "Second, we’ve created an API to return the people associated with a particular activity query," he adds. "That is, you can now search for people who have recently created a public post that includes an arbitrary string or related geo-location. For example, if you wanted to see the people associated with Red Sox near Fenway Park, you could use this URL for the JSON response."

    Google has also enabled users to discover content related to particular posts. Developers can access and deliver search results related to the post’s topic.

    More information on utilizing these features of the Google Buzz API can be found in the documentation.

  • 5 Current Social Media Stories That Mean Good Things For Your Business

    There are too many happenings everyday in the social media space for any single business owner to keep up with. Today’s web is fast, and very, very innovative. The production never slows down. New tools and integrations are launched seemingly every other minute.

    While I’d encourage you to sift through the headlines and social media app directories on a regular basis, I’ve put together a few currently unfolding storylines with big implications for business owners.

    What do you think is the most interesting social media development of which we have yet to see the outcome? Let us know.

    1. Why the Google Buzz Firehose Will Benefit You

    Google Buzz launched to a lot of hype, but that kind of died down to some extent after a while. The privacy-related issues that it launched with didn’t help. However, Google Buzz has steadily been making more moves to become more relevant to the social media universe. It already has a solid user base, and we’ve likely only seen the service’s infancy.

    A couple months ago, Google launched the Buzz API, which was a big step in the right direction. This gave developers tools to build applications around Buzz, or integrate Buzz into their existing applications, hence making Buzz more useful. Just as Twitter became more useful when more apps were built for it, Buzz has similar potential.

    That potential has now increased greatly, as Google has launched the firehose for the Buzz API. This means that all public information from Buzz users is accessible by developers for use with their apps, which opens the door for many more opportunities. See how some are already using it here.

    From the business owner’s perspective, simply think of Buzz as another group of potential customers, in addition to Facebook and Twitter users, which will probably be integrated into many of the same apps that are already utilizing these other groups. So any promotional benefits you are seeing from said apps should increase with the addition of Buzz data, not to mention the fact that this and other factors will likely lead to the growth of Buzz itself. That brings me to the next point.

    Do you think Google Buzz will become more useful to your business? Comment here.

    2. Google Me

    For weeks, Google has been rumored to be working on a new big social network to rival Facebook. The company of course does not comment on rumors, but has not denied the concept. Details are scarce, but "Google Me" as it’s commonly being referred to, will likely utilize existing Google profile pages, which are tied to Google Buzz. As I discussed in a recent article, Google is making all YouTube users connect their accounts to a Google account, which could mean that all of these Google account holders become part of Google’s massive social network by default.

    Without knowing Google’s exact plans, it’s hard to say exactly what benefits will become available that aren’t already there, but you can bet that the implications will be big, and it might make all of Google’s social properties more beneficial to businesses. YouTube is one of the most popular sites in the world. Add that to everyone else with a Google account.

    Will Google be able to rival Facebook in social media mind share?     Comment here.

    3. Virtual Goods Increase Purchase Intent

    Virtual goods are becoming more popular within social networks, and businesses are already finding ways to utilize them to not only increase brand awareness and influence positive opinions about their products, but drive purchase intent.

    In fact, new study from Appssavvy found that they can do all of these things, while increasing all brand metrics. More about this here.

    Virtual Goods Boost Mobile Ad Awareness

    Have you had success with virtual goods-based campaigns? Comment here.

    4. Customers Are Checking In, and This Will Become Searchable

    Another hot trend in social media is checking in. You know, all of these geo-location services like Foursquare, Gowalla, Brightkite, Booyah, etc. More and more of them will continue to pop up, and let’s not forget the really big names. Google has Google latitude, Twitter has Twitter Places, and Facebook will be launching something location-based one of these days soon.

    Foursquare is already in talks with all of the major search engines. We don’t know exactly will come of this, but it seems clear that search engines are interested in indexing this kind of data, and why wouldn’t they be? Imagine if you as, as a business, could search for all of the people sharing their location in your area. That could be pretty powerful.

    How would you use searchable, realtime location data?     Comment here.

    5. Social Media Hasn’t Plateaued.

    During the world cup, Twitter was breaking records for tweets. While this is related to a large-scale event, it just shows that a massive amount of people still care about Twitter, and that isn’t changing anytime soon.

    It was only earlier this year that Facebook announced it had surpassed 400 million users. The company is widely expected to announce that it’s reached 500 million this week. I probably don’t have to tell you that between these numbers, Facebook faced a huge amount of criticism in the media over privacy issues, with a lot of people talking about deleting their accounts. Facebook just kept on growing. That’s not going to change anytime soon either. Facebook is becoming integrated into the very fiber of the web more and more each day (through social plug-ins, apps, etc.). There are more access points all the time (see Microsoft’s new Outlook integration). It’s getting harder to ignore if you’re not already a user.

    If that wasn’t good enough news for businesses placing their fatih in social media, more consumers are actively using Facebook and Twitter to engage with brands. They’re making email marketing campaigns (an already effective marketing channel) more effective.

    How long do you think Facebook and Twitter will continue to grow? Share your thoughts.

    The web is flooded with social media advice articles everyday. They can get redundant at times, and a lot of them say basically the same things. However, this massive amount of information is also a product of the sheer number of opportunities there are with this medium. That number also grows everyday as more apps, tools, and resources are created – including niche-specific opportunities. Local-specific. Networking-specific. E-commerce-specific. Brick and Mortar-specific.

    What are some specific examples of social media opportunities you have found to be beneficial to your business? Share your ideas with other business owners.

  • Google Buzz Just Became a Great Deal More Useful

    Google has introduced some new features to the Google Buzz API, which launched at Google I/O back in May. This includes the much-requested firehose, which makes available all public activities on Buzz as they are published, with one subscription.

    Launch partners include OneRiot, Collecta, Gnip, Postrank Analytics, and Superfeedr’s Track. "As a launch partner, OneRiot is one of the first companies to get access to Google’s brand new stream of realtime social web data and we’re doing some very exciting things with it," OneRiot’s Meredith Bagnulo tells WebProNews. "We’re using it to fuel our trending topics engine, realtime search results and realtime ad network."

    "The addition of Google Buzz delivers a whole new set of conversations for us to process in realtime, bringing to the surface the topics that people across a much wider web are engaging with right now," she adds.

    OneRiot utilizes Google Buzz firehose

    "We’ve had some fun coming up with cool things to do with the firehose," says John Panzer of the Google Buzz Team. "For example, Bob Aman coded up Buzz Mood, an App Engine app inspired by Twistori. By scanning for posts that contain certain keywords, Bob’s able to give us a sense for the mood across all of Google Buzz in real time."

    You can bet that there will be plenty more more activity around Google Buzz from developers now that the firehose is available. The launch of the API itself was a big step forward in terms of creating a brighter future for Buzz, but the firehose opens up some real possibilities.

    Developers can now integrate comments by users, likes by users, and shared counts into their applications. Documentation is here.

  • Google Puts Buzz Into Social Search

    Google has expanded its social search feature to include additional links that appear in the Buzz tab of users’ Google profiles. Users who use Google Buzz have the option to add "connected sites" and post content from these sites publicly on their Google profiles.

    "For example, you can choose to connect your Twitter account and set your tweets to appear publicly in your Buzz stream and the Buzz tab of your profile," explains Google software engineer Mike Lopyrev.

    Google Buzz Tab with more connections

    "With our enhancements today, we’ll start following these public links in the Buzz tab to improve your social search results," says Lopyrev. That means if there’s a link to your Twitter account in your public Buzz stream, we’ll follow that link to add the people you follow on Twitter to your social circle. If you don’t use Buzz, you can still add links to YouTube, Picasa and other sites directly to your Google profile, and we’ll continue to follow those links as well.

    All content that is surfaced via social search results comes from public sources, and if you have private connections, you are the only one that can see them, Google says.

    You always have the ability to see what content you’re sharing and who you’re connected with by clicking "My Social Content" and "My Social Circle" next to social search results.

  • Does the World Still Need Twitter?

    Does the World Still Need Twitter?

    Twitter users know that the service goes down fairly often, but that doesn’t seem to alienate them. While Twitter has certainly had its issues with user retention in the past, it continues to grow. Last month, the site grew by nearly 10% (over the previous month) by our estimates, with total registered users estimated at 122 million. That’s not Facebook-like numbers, but it’s pretty significant. One almost has to wonder if those numbers would be higher if the "Fail Whale" didn’t make so many appearances. Twitter users, for the most part, don’t seem to mind him too much though.

    What makes you keep coming back to Twitter, despite frequent downtime? Tell us.

    The Downtime

    Frequent downtime is nothing new for Twitter. It’s been going on pretty much as long as Twitter’s been around. You would think that by now, they’d have it under control, but no such luck.

    The latest post on the Twitter status blog from just today says, "We’re currently experiencing a high rate of errors (whales) on Twitter.com. Our infrastructure and operations engineers are responding to the incident. One from Monday night talks about site availability issues. This is a pretty common theme on the blog. June 9th…"site availability issues". June 8th…site availability issues…May 5th…"site largely unavailable. April 22nd…"elevated errors." April 20th…"high error rate." April 12th…."high error rate." April 5th…"general site outage." March 25th…"high error rate." You get the idea. This is all scattered among posts about missing tweets, missing follower counts, and other issues. And I’m pretty sure there has not been a corresponding update every time I’ve personally seen the Fail Whale.

    Is it the Features?

    Twitter continues to put out new features. Is it the increased usefulness of the service that keeps people coming back?  Most recently, they launched Twitter Places for location-sharing (a very popular phenomenon these days). This will keep that crowd coming back, although too much Foursquare could alienate others (or at least reduce some follower counts).

    Twitter Places

    Businesses are expecting more features specifically for them. Twitter bought an analytics company recently, and more business account-related goodies are expected to come. As we’ve discussed repeatedly, there are plenty of opportunities for businesses to take advantage of Twitter, but what about regular users?

    Is it the Apps?

    The Twitter ecosystem is possible because of Twitter’s API. Thanks to this, many apps have been created that make Twitter more useful to people, catering to their specific preferences. If you don’t like Twitter, you can probably find an app out there that makes you like it more.

    Is it Search?

    Twitter is probably the leading source of real-time information, which is becoming a greater factor in how people search. People search Twitter for the latest updates on topics, and they search Google, which will also bring up real-time results, heavily saturated with tweets. Is this why people keep using Twitter?

    Is it News?

    Beyond just search, Twitter provides up to the second news. It provides trending topics where users can see what is being talked about heavily at any given time. It gives users RSS-style, personalized news organization. Twitter put this kind of functionality in the mainstream, and got users reading news this way that never knew what RSS was or understood the concept – the news you care about coming right to you in one place.

    It also provides a very easy format for creating the news. If you’re on the scene, it’s easy to push out a quick tweet. Is this why people keep coming back?

    Is it the Name?

    It seems that people (at least in the media) just can’t get enough of talking about Twitter. You know you’ve heard countless mentions and sarcastic jabs at the use of "Twitter" and "tweeting" on TV news, on the radio, in the newspapers, during sporting events, late night talk shows, etc. Does the constant exposure of Twitter contribute to why people won’t put it down?

    Some Answers

    I asked a number of people why they think people keep coming back to Twitter, even though the service is frequently on the fritz. Answers vary, but they are probably all spot on.

    Starting in-house, our own Mike McDonald says, "Because at the end of the day, nobody loses any sleep over not being able to tweet. It’s something done in passing for the bulk of their user base. If it’s down, there is Facebook or 50 other ways they can broadcast some idea, and it’ll be back up at some point…Twitter is easier."

    A couple good answers came from our Facebook fans. Gary Spencer says, "It’s the funny whale picture, gotta love that."

    Fail Whale

    Tom Bill simply says, "It’s free."

    Siok Siok Tan, who’s making a documentary about Twitter (which she tells me should be done in August or September…read our intreview with her about that here) says, "Because Twitter’s main attraction isn’t its flawless technology. It is the unique catchment of people that it has managed to aggregate."

    Jason Falls, who runs Social Media Explorer, says, "Why will Twitter users tolerate downtime from the service? Because they probably need a break from it anyway."

    "Seriously, though, Twitter is a conversation place," he adds. "There’s no network or platform out there right now with as large a user base and an already established network of contacts where you can just go and chat with people. Twitter has the market on open-forum, group conversation enabling. Until there is a better option, people will put up with it."

    Alternatives?

    "To clarify the answer: Our instant messaging platforms are mostly closed and don’t allow for open/public conversation among large groups," Falls continues. "Facebook isn’t real-time enough from a user-experience perspective. The other microblogging platforms (yeah, a few still exist) don’t have YOUR network of friends already built in. And even if they did, none of them have the variety of third party apps and add-ons that Twitter does. They’ve got a monopoly on the online user’s desire to chitter chatter. Sad but true."

    Michael Gray of AtlasWebService, who is a frequent user, says, "In my opinion is has to do with where your friends are. No one likes Facebook’s crazy privacy settings and there are lots of other social networks where you have more control, but none of your friends are there. Jaiku offered a very similar service to twitter, but they where never able to get that critical mass of users. As long a Twitter has the concentration of people you want to share things with people will put up with downtime."

    Mike Stelzner, founder of SocialMediaExaminer.com, has a slightly different perspective, however. He says, "They are moving to Facebook more and more. Keeping Twitter because everyone they trust is there, but moving to FB."

    Will Google Buzz creep its way into the fold? Some think it’s on the way up, and while Google has never presented Buzz as a replacement for Twitter or Facebook, it could happen with the users’ help. It’s already got the retweet-like feature, the retweet button-like buttons, the early adopters (many of the same ones that Twitter had), and now the API to get developers creating and integrating the apps (not to mention all of the other Google properties to integrate if they so choose). What it doesn’t have is the downtime (Gmail fails every once in a while, but it is nothing like the rate of the Fail Whale).

    However, Google Buzz also doesn’t have the Oprahs and the Justin Biebers making it appealing to the masses. Sadly, this could be one of the biggest things holding it back. Time will tell if that changes.

    But for now, people seem content to stick with Twitter and cut the Fail Whale some slack. It is clear that people love Twitter (maybe we should turn to the one-word answers people gave about Twitter last year). They love it so much, they will put up with frequent downtime, and hardly think twice about it. But Twitter might want to get this under control before it’s too late, because there are alternatives out there, and this Fail Whale tolerance might not last forever.

    Do you use Twitter? We want to hear from you. What makes you keep using it despite the frequent fail whales? Comment here.

  • Is the Future Getting Brighter for Google Buzz?

    As I talked about a couple weeks ago, Google has been making some moves that could greatly increase Google Buzz’s shot at more widespread adoption. This includes the addition of some features, and perhaps more importantly, the release of the Buzz API (announced at Google I/O).

    Recent feature additions include a reshare button (basically the Buzz version of the retweet), the release of an XHTML version of Buzz (which can be accessed from many mobile devices like those running Android pre-2.0, BlackBerry, Nokia S60, and Windows Mobile), greater email integration, and the official Buzz Buttons (which can go a long way for the strategic branding of Buzz across content sites all over the web).

    Do you think Google is improving Buzz? Tell us what you think.

    The API should lead to a much richer ecosystem around Buzz, with third-party apps finding new ways for users to get involved with the service – much like third-party apps have done for Twitter.

    Famous tech blogger Robert Scoble appears to think Buzz may be ready for a comeback (it did release to much hype, but that has since fizzled out for the most part). He wrote an interesting post highlighting 9 reasons why such a comeback could be possible. Among these are superior mobile features (compared to other social networks), the addition of features in general (he says its getting "close to matching FriendFeed", a service Facebook found significant enough to acquire itself), a good search tool, and possible SEO opportunities to name a few.

    He also lists some "significant negatives", which include a lack of noise control, lists, clients, and brands. Read his entire analysis here.

    XHTML Version of Google Buzz Google’s own Matt Cutts weighed in as well, saying, "Do you remember when you first started on Twitter, and you didn’t know quite what to do with it? Who do I follow? What do I say? I didn’t really "get" Twitter for months. But as I found interesting people to follow and got the hang of it, I began to see the appeal of Twitter and started using it more often. I’ve noticed Buzz is tracing that same trajectory for me: an initial burst, followed by a bit of a slump, and then a steady climb as I found people that make Buzz interesting."

    Again the API could go a long way in this regard for a lot of people. Scoble’s point about brands is a very strong one though. I would include celebrities in that category. Remember stars like Oprah and Ashton Kutcher did for Twitter? You just don’t hear that with Buzz.

    Gmail might be considered both an advantage and a disadvantage for Buzz. Being a feature of Gmail, it automatically gets in front of Gmail users (though certainly not all actually use it). At the same time, Buzz being a feature of Gmail may be keeping others away from it. Scoble notes that it’s not available as a service that’s separate from Gmail and that it’s "a real bummer."

    Buzz just may find its niche in the social web though, if it hasn’t already. It was never presented as a replacement for Twitter or Facebook (at least by Google). In fact, the company has tried hard to distance Buzz from such services, and has repeatedly referred to Buzz as simply a node, and a node that promotes an open web at that.

    Some are probably still turned off by the initial privacy fiasco that Buzz launched with, but as Facebook continues to show, privacy concerns don’t necessarily impede growth.

    Do you think Buzz has a bright future? Share your thoughts.

  • Gmail and Google Buzz Get Google Maps Previews

    Google has released a new Gmail Labs feature that lets you preview Google Maps within Gmail and Google Buzz.

    "I often receive emails containing addresses in them — where to meet for dinner, the location of my friend’s new apartment, etc. To find out where these places actually are, I have to copy the address, open up Google Maps, and paste it in," says Google software engineer Mark Knichel, explaining the motivation for creating this feature.

    Now users can enable "Google Maps previews in mail" from the Gmail Labs tab under "settings", and when they receive an address or a Google Maps link in an email, a preview will appear containing an interactive Google Map of the location.

    Google Maps Preview in Gmail

    When a user pastes a Google Maps link into the post box in Google Buzz, it will automatically fetch an image preview of the location, and you can associate that with your post.

    Google Maps Preview in Buzz

    At this point, the Gmail feature only works with US addresses, but Google says it’s working on making the feature available for addresses around the world. Any Google Maps URL will work.

  • Will Google Buzz Find Mainstream Appeal?

    Google is starting to make some significant moves that may give Google Buzz a significant boost. For example, this week, a "Reshare" button was announced. This is essentially Google’s version of the retweet. If you follow a Buzz user who posts an interesting update, you can hit the "reshare" button (down with the comment, like, and email buttons) to repost that post to your own Buzz stream.

    Will new features fuel Buzz growth? Comment here.

    Reshare only works for public posts. Private posts will not have the reshare link. However, you can reshare posts yourself publicly or privately. If a lot of people you follow reshare the same post, the similar posts will be collapsed.

    "You’ll notice that resharing creates a new post, effectively forking the conversation. To fork or not fork was a decision we debated for a while," says Buzz software engineer Sam Goto. "Ultimately, we think forked conversations help create more varied, intimate discussions around a single item. We realize people may want a non-forking version too, so we’re thinking about how to do that as well."

    "When there is a chain of reshares, the names of all of the people who publicly reshare the post appear on the original item, even if they’re not directly connected to the original author," Goto explains. "If you share something that ends up getting passed around by lots of other people, it’s pretty cool to see that."

    It’s also worth noting that you can "like" a reshare, and that will not translate to a "like" for the original post. This means you can like a comment without liking what the comment is about.

    Google Buzz - New Reshare feature - Google's version of the retweet

    Google also  announced that it’s releasing an XHTML version of the Buzz website which can be accessed from many mobile devices like those running Android pre-2.0, Blackberry, Nokia S60, and Windows Mobile. This could go a long way for getting Buzz used by mobile users across a broader range of devices.

    Google Buzz launched earlier this year to a great deal of hype – and why not – a potential Facebook/Twitter competitor from the giant that is Google – but much of the "buzz" about Buzz has faded in the months since. In fact, most of the discussion in the media about Buzz has been centered around privacy issues (though that has become considerably less rampant…Facebook has filled that role nicely).

    As we’ve been saying since long before Buzz was announced, the key to a Google social network offering is in the integration with its other products. This made launching Buzz within Gmail seem like a smart move, but there is still much work to be done if Buzz is to become a real player in the space.

    Adding features, such as the reshare feature is a start, but what may have a more significant impact was an announcement that came last week.

    During Google I/O, I attended a session in which Google quietly announced the launch of the Buzz API. The news was generally overshadowed by other Google announcements, such as the unveilings of Google TV and FroYo, but with developers getting access to the Buzz API, there is room for much to be done around the service in terms of third-party apps, which should ultimately make Buzz much more useful. That’s what happened with Twitter. Developers like TweetDeck, Boxee, Buzzzy, Klout, Meebo, Seesmic, Vinehub, Shareaholic, and other have already taken advantage of the Buzz API.

    It’s hard to say if the general public will find a real need for Buzz alongside Facebook, Twitter and other services, but as Google grows its presence in mobile via Android, and soon into television via Google TV, there will be more potential gateways for Buzz adoption, as well as integration.

    Is Buzz headed in the right direction? Do you think Buzz use will explode? Share your thoughts.

  • Google Makes Buzz Available From More Mobile Devices

    We’ll let you judge whether this is a good or bad thing, but Google is not giving up on its Buzz service.  Today, in addition to introducing a "reshare" feature, the company decided to make Buzz available to people using many more types of smartphones.

    You may recall that Buzz only worked with iPhones and newer Android devices when it launched.  Obviously, that left a lot of folks out in the cold.

    So on the Google Mobile Blog, Alex Kennberg, a software engineer, wrote this afternoon, "Today we’re a releasing an XHTML version of the Buzz website which can be accessed from many other mobile devices, including those running Android pre-2.0, Blackberry, Nokia S60, and Windows Mobile."  Plus WebOS.

    No downloads or hurdle-jumping is necessary to take advantage of the upgrade; a visit to buzz.google.com in the browser is all that’s involved.  Google Buzz for mobile is even available in 37 languages.  Just note that not everyone will have the opportunity to enable one geolocation feature.

    Still not a fan of Buzz?  Well, at the rate things are going, Google may offer you a few more reasons to change your mind next week.