Google Buzz

[charmian]

Hmm, nothing much to say about Google Buzz: It still feels very beta to me, and it really has got to support more external services also (such as Tumblr and Posterous!). However, it is a nice microblogging tool: you can make comments and 'like' posts, and when you put in links to images, it automatically shows viewers a preview.

Also notable are its privacy features: unlike Twitter, where you are restricted to making an account completely public or completely private, Buzz allows you to make public or private posts on one account, and also, it has granular privacy: you can create subgroups of your followers and only allow a specific group of them to see it.

Comments

[janinedog]

So far, I see nothing about it that Facebook doesn't already do (and do better). But, we'll see what they come up with. :)

[charmian]

Yeah, this is Google's salvo against FB, apparently. However, I want to microblog pseudonomyously, so it's helpful in that sense. It would be cooler if they integrated it w/ more Google products also, and if you could push things to Twitter as well as pulling from it.

[janinedog]

I don't know if Twitter can take feeds as input, but if so, you can give it the Buzz feed.

Amusingly, Facebook allows you to take Buzz posts as input (via the feed), but doesn't allow you to put Facebook updates on Buzz. At least, not yet.

[charmian]

Oh yeah, but then I would have to go through a third party service, and that would be more involved.

I don't know if they will... Facebook Connect is proprietary, IIRC, right?

[zvi]

Yes, but for those of us who don't like Facebook (or find twitter's 140 character limit makes it useless), this is an alternative.