A Busy Week at Google
Google made two significant announcements last week. First was the introduction of Google Buzz a service that will allow Gmail users to share updates, photos and videos with friends and contacts. According to The New York Times, “Buzz is Google’s boldest attempt to build a social network that can compete with Twitter and Facebook.” At launch, Buzz will integrate with Twitter, photo-sharing sites Picasa and Flickr and YouTube. There is no current or planned integration with Facebook. This is seen as a deal breaker to many since Facebook users who want to use Buzz and Buzz users who want to use Facebook would now have to manage two networks.
Buzz is integrated into Gmail and comes with a built-in circle of friends, the people that a user communicates most often with through Gmail and Google chat. Originally these friends were added to a user’s profile automatically and were visible to anyone viewing that user’s profile. However, after considerable pubic outcry over privacy issues, this circle of friends will only be suggested to users not automatically added.
Google executives say that rather than adding yet more information that people have to sort through, Buzz will tackle the problem of information overload as its algorithms will be applied to help people find the information most relevant to them through one platform.
In a separate announcement, Google indicated it intends to offer ultra-highspeed Internet access in some communities as a test to show what would be possible if the U.S. had faster broadband networks. Google has long been unhappy with broadband speeds in the U.S. which are much slower than those in other countries.
If Google’s test goes as planned, users could surf the web at one gigabit per second or about 100 times faster than many broadband connections provide today. According to a Google spokesman, the company has no intention to enter the ISP business. The test is intended to nudge current providers into offering faster speeds at lower costs.
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