elearnspace

Google has more to fear from Facebook than Microsoft. Microsoft is gifted with an inability to deliver products for the web (I actually liked Popfly, but it has since been discontinued). Facebook, in contrast, is starting to redefine the web (looking more and more like AOL’s attempt in the 80′s to create their own web…have a look at Facebook could eat the web). Facebook’s strategy is driven by social connections and the seemingly innate human desire to know gossip-like details in the lives of others. Google has responded with Buzz: “Our belief is that organizing the social information on the web — finding relevance in the noise — has become a large-scale challenge, one that Google’s experience in organizing information can help solve.”
After a few days of playing with Buzz, I think it’s a tool that tries to do too much. Twitter has 140 characters – worth a quick scan. Facebook uses update feeds, image sharing, email, etc. as an integrated system. Google has added some nice functionality to Buzz, but it takes time to get used to it – twitter-like posts, blended with paragraphs of text, images, and threaded discussion. But it may suffer from Wave-syndrome: a tool that tries to be too clever and can’t readily understood or communicated.
After logging into her gmail account today, my daughter asked me “what’s Buzz”? As I tried explaining it, I realized that if it takes that long to communicate, it’s likely too complex or too far ahead of its time.