Can Google Buzz Succeed Where FriendFeed Couldn't?
Google just launched Google Buzz, the company's new social networking service which will be tightly integrated with Gmail. There can be little doubt that Google Buzz looks a lot like FriendFeed, the social aggregation service that was acquired by Facebook in August 2009. Today, FriendFeed's developers are Facebook employees and aren't likely to continue to improve the service in any meaningful way, while the active user community on FriendFeed continues to shrink rapidly. Given the similarities between the two services, we can't help but wonder if Google Buzz will be able to succeed where FriendFeed couldn't.
As Louis Gray points out, Google Buzz validates FriendFeed's ideas, but it also marginalizes the service even more. While some will look at Buzz as a Facebook/Twitter competitor, it also represents the final nail in FriendFeed's coffin. We will surely see a lot of FriendFeed's features appear on Facebook in the future, but FriendFeed as a stand-alone service has now lost its relevancy before it ever got a chance to go mainstream.
The real question, though, is whether Google Buzz will be able to succeed where FriendFeed couldn't. FriendFeed never made it out of the early-adopter phase and slowly became a self-referential community that was never quite accessible enough for a larger audience.
Looks Familiar?
If you are not familiar with FriendFeed, just have a look at these two screenshots:
Google's Advantage: Lifting FriendFeed's Best Ideas and a Huge Built-In User Base
Google Buzz has a number of advantages over FriendFeed. While FriendFeed tried to attract early adopters and mostly catered to their tastes, Buzz has a built-in audience already. While FriendFeed had to work hard on building a thriving community and never managed to attract a large mainstream audience, Gmail is one of the world's most popular email services and thanks to this, Buzz has millions of potential users from day one.
Also, while FriendFeed tried to allow users to connect to as many social services as possible, Google Buzz is just starting out with a few core Google and third-party services for now (Flickr, Picasa, Google Reader and Twitter). This will make it far more accessible than FriendFeed ever was.
Google is also putting a lot of emphasis on location-based and mobile services here, which is something FriendFeed never did. FriendFeed, for example, never offered a mobile app, while mobile apps and sites are one of the areas where Google is focusing on with Buzz.
The Buzz team has also been able to lift some of the best ideas from FriendFeed. You can "like" items, comment on them, you can see who liked a post (which looks identical to FriendFeed's implementation of this feature) and Buzz will recommend items that it thinks will be interesting to you because your friends also liked them or commented on them.
What do you Think?
Do you think Buzz's built-in mainstream user base help it to succeed where FriendFeed failed?
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I think this is just a first step for Google. To use a railway analogy, at first glance Buzz turns a GoogleMail account into a railway station or terminus.
With longer term plans stated as offering support for AtomPub, OAuth, PubSubHubbub, Salmon and WebFinger it seems that they are trying to create an aggregator facility, a kind of hub, that nobody has succeeded in... yet!
I am left with two questions though – is this really any different from Yahoo! Updates? Will the Google brand make it work where Updates is relatively unknown?
Mybloglog gone, friendfeed gone...is twitter next.
Google Buzz looks promising but isn't it a bit late to join the party? Gmail might have millions of users but so does Facebook, 400 of them.
What about Google wave, where does this fit in? Isn't this an indication Google is more or less signing its death certificate?
I think it doesn't directly compete with Facebook, but I haven't quite made up my mind yet... Wave is different, but I could see an integration between the two in the long run
Posted by: Frederic
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February 9, 2010 12:44 PM
Friendfeed who?
Great article, Frederic! It's a little surprising to see how identical Buzz is to FF. I think we all assumed FF's future would be limited once Facebook bought them, but you're right, the clock is ticking now. But I'm on the same bandwagon as other folks critical of Google's actions. Google Voice, Wave, Buzz... how many more services with Google take on before:
1) it gets any of them right? (I'm exaggerating a little, I know)
2) it fails at something? (is there a big enough market for Wave?)
3) it stretches itself so thin that it can no longer focus on doing anything right?
I figured we'd see Google Voice merged with Gmail before we'd see much else from them.
They sell phones, now too! ;)
They said in the press event, they're looking into integrating Wave into Buzz in some way.
Posted by: Mitchell McKenna
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February 9, 2010 1:49 PM
Yahoo has had Updates for over a year. It started out with Yahoo Mail and now it pervades a lot of their pages as long as I'm signed in. Sometimes quite annoying.
This is probably where Google wants to go.
Question is, if Yahoo, with Yahoo Mail being the world's largest email service and Yahoo being the most visited content site on earth, is finding it a hard slog to make this feature widely adopted, does anybody think Google will somehow be better at it? Especially considering Google has never quite grasped [imho] the human aspects of web usage..
Actually there is one question that seems to be the most important one (at least to me) that nobody is asking: How will Google Buzz work for non-GMail users?
When you are going social you don't want any boundaries. I won't spend my time posting on Buzz and reaching only my GMail friends while I can use Twitter and reach everybody.
Does it make sense to force companies and news agencies to create a GMail account to go social on Buzz?
And even if they don't require a GMail account (as they don't for Orkut), how will all features (inbox notifications, etc.) work for non-GMail users?
I like the fact they want it to communicate with other products (Twitter, etc.) but they really should think about non-GMail users first, otherwise nobody will use it.
Holy crap, I'm famous! :)
But yeah, I'm still not quite on board with equating my social circle with my email contact list. Plus, NOT including very many third-party services seems like a serious downside to me. That's what drew me to FriendFeed in the first place - if I have to manually share everything on Buzz, that seems like a lot more work.
Still, I'm excited to check it out. Just as soon as it goes active for me. *taps foot*
I think Googlewave is the Internet communication in the future, Google Buzz is the current way to communicate.
Buzz is not going to replace facebook, but might be taking place of twitter. Because if people get used of using Buzz to tweet, then they will no longer use twiiter webpage or its API.
I think Google Buzz will have a hard time competing with the prominent social media sites. However, there is a great possibility that people will get to use this Google site since Google has the popularity to make people do so.
I don't understand why Google chose to put buzz in gmail instead of reader. Reader already has many of these same features. It seems that the left hand does not know what the right hand is doing at google. They have other microbloging systems too such as orkut and jaiku.
This does not mean that buzz will not succeed. Reader can certainly aggregate many other social sites. But what would make me port them to buzz when I can access them in reader? I suppose gmail was targeted due to its user base, but this just confuses the issue.
Question is whether buzz will allow me to post to twitter from buzz. If not, then buzz will never replace friendfeed.
Simply being more visible than FriendFeed won't help Google anymore than it helped Yahoo. FriendFeed's biggest problem wasn't its low profile, it was that almost nobody needs the service.
Most people don't join and try to stay involved in a dozen different networks -- they join the 2 or 3 that their real-life friends are on, and that's it. FriendFeed has no appeal to those people.
I think Google Buzz is Friendfeed reborn again. And it Will probably even replace Google Reader soon when all can add their blog feeds and other streams to it. I think Buzz has a very bright future.
"I don't understand why Google chose to put buzz in gmail instead of reader. Reader already has many of these same features." (JonyWinter)
Yes! I completely agree JonyWinter. I use Gmail for email purposes, checking emails/composing emails - rarely do I even use the "chat" function, although when skype is being whiny, I have switched over.
I like that in reader you can follow others, almost like the "twitter lists" these days. But like everyone is saying, Google is jumping on this bandwagon a bit too late. Obviously they own the world - so it will have some standing ground on its own anyway.
I might play around with it, just to make sure it's not the coolest thing since sliced bread - but ultimately I don't plan on using it.
Maddie
@maddieweber
Why isn't everyone complaining about the lack of support for all my non-gmail friends? Funnily, I use Google Apps for my email (a non gmail.com account) and I can't use buzz with that.
Not sure how this would ever work with non gmail users. Think future is very dim until they announce a path.
I agree with @lelapin. Google Buzz is a day late and a dollar short... (well, forget the dollar part). With the widespread integration of the Twitter and Facebook APIs, social network aggregation is becoming a lost art. It's still a 2 horse race with MySpace tumbling down the mountain.
Well well every one talking about google buzz taking over,
Now which site do you think is taking over craiglist ha well halfpages this site is so cool and have all the things craiglist miss well
I only signed up for FriendFeed about a couple of months ago, but soon abandoned it in favour of Twitter and Facebook, which together pretty much cover everything I need from social networking. However, when Google Buzz came out there was very little coverage of how it's essentially a FriendFeed competitor and not a Twitter/Facebook rival.
I must say, so far Google Buzz has not impressed me. I wish Google had fought their urge to release products while still in Beta and actually hammered out some more features for Buzz before release.
Google Buzz will soon be available in a standalone mode also, though it also comes along with its older sibling, Gmail. While privacy became debatable when Google Buzz is offered along with Gmail, the company is unlikely to separate it, thanks to the enormous convenience it offers to users.