Google’s mooted social feature filled addition to Gmail has arrived. It’s called Google Buzz and puts the search giant on a collision course with Facebook, Myspace and Twitter…
Google Buzz is based around Gmail and lets you share information, photos videos and status updates. It also connects with Flickr and Twitter.
The Google Buzz mobile service geotags your updates through the service to show where you were when you shared that information.
Google Buzz is rolling out to Gmail accounts over the next few days and Google is bullish about its new features. Bradley Horowitz, Google’s vice-president of product marketing, says: “There’s so much opportunity, we can wire this up in so many ways with other parts of Google, other parts of the internet.”
Google Buzz scans your existing Gmail account to automatically show updates and media from contacts you talk to frequently but there are private sharing options too. Google founder Serge Brin has already suggested that Buzz, IM and email will eventually become one.
Google’s rivals have been swift to attack Google Buzz. Microsoft slammed the move saying: “Busy people don’t want another social network, what they want is the convenience of aggregation.” It pointed to its own Microsoft Hotmail email which has Flickr, Twitter and Facebook integration.
Meanwhile, Yahoo! which has a similarly named Yahoo! Buzz service tweeted: “Two years after Yahoo! launched Buzz, Google follows suit. Check out the original: http://buzz.yahoo.com/”
Has Google Buzz made it to your Gmail account yet? Let us know what you think of it. Do you need another way to share your thoughts and online discoveries or are you already feeling a little bit too social?
Out now | £free | Google
