Google today launched Google Buzz, a service that allows you share updates, photos, videos, and start conversations about the things you find interesting.
Google Buzz integrates a social media stream into Google’s Gmail platform and appears very much like FriendFeed, but also ties in to a number of Google services such as Youtube and Picasa, as well as being able to integrate with both Flickr and Twitter services. This semi-open approach is a threat to the closed nature of Facebook, who purchased FriendFeed last year and have made several changes to their user interface moving to a more FriendFeed-like user experience.
Twitter is also under threat by this announcement, with Google Buzz providing an out of the box social web experience similar to Twitter for existing users of Gmail it makes it hard to justify signing up to yet another service when users already have a Gmail account. Though it is possible given Google Buzz’s ability to tie in with Twitter, that Buzz can cross pollinate with Twitter ensuring that both services continue to grow.
Microsoft, the number two webmail provider with approximately 20% market share has come out swinging against Google Buzz, issuing the following statement:
“Busy people don’t want another social network, what they want is the convenience of aggregation. We’ve done that. Hotmail customers have benefitted from Microsoft working with Flickr, Facebook, Twitter and 75 other partners since 2008.”
Normally a company would let a launch like this slide, however Google Buzz poses a real threat to Microsoft. Google Buzz threatens Microsoft’s grip on the real time web with Google unlikely to come to terms on a deal for Microsoft’s Bing search engine to index Google Buzz updates in a similar deal to those Bing has with Facebook and Twitter.
Yahoo! the number one webmail provider in the USA with a 50% market share and an estimated 300 Million email addresses worldwide, issued a statement regarding Google Buzz via Twitter:
“Two years after #Yahoo! launched #Buzz, Google follows suit. Check out the original: http://buzz.yahoo.com/“
Not only do Yahoo! already offer a similar service launched 18 months ago called Yahoo! Updates, but there is already a product within the Yahoo! portfolio called Yahoo! Buzz, understandably Yahoo! is not impressed by Google’s announcement, but having divested themselves from maintaining the Updates product line (outsourcing it to Facebook) it is fair to say that Google isn’t really stepping on too many toes at Yahoo! with the Buzz launch.
While Gmail is a relatively small player in the webmail space, if it can successfully launch Google Buzz via the Gmail platform, it will drive sign-ups to Gmail looking to use the Google Buzz service and away from both the webmail offerings of Yahoo! and Microsoft.
Links to Google Buzz and the Google Downunder post covering the launch.