Google did a good job for itself with the launch, almost defaulting every gmail user to use Buzz. However, it didnt have a novel, user friendly social networking concept to support its launch efforts. The initial reactions from some of my friends sums up the reception it got.
"Yet another social networking tool"?
"Did someone finally buzz google out of its slumber?"
And a response to that "If someone did that, looks like Google just hit a snooze and went back to its slumber"
And a couple of weeks after its launch, the statistics on my Buzz tells a tale supporting these views.
I frequent gmail every 30 mins or so during the day and the Buzz was really buzzing with activity in the first week. There would be atleast 30 new buzzes every time i log into gmail.
Over to this week...
I login this morning after 12 hours of inactivity and to my surprise, find just 2 new buzzes.
It isnt just about the Buzz. Lot of my orkut friends are getting onto facebook and arent frequenting orkut as they used to, till a year back. Google definitely has a long road to cover if it wants to get successful in the social networking world.
Yes. Google has utterly (by its own standards) failed in social networking so far. As you mentioned Orkut is on the decline and Wave did not create much waves. While there is some convienience in bundling social networking part of one's email account, Buzz as you said is not novel and does not offer a rich experience. Moreover I tend to believe that people would like to keep their emails and social networking separately. They serve different purposes.
ReplyDeleteMore importantly, the way Google automatically chose my followers and whom I follow by default put me off and some of my friends. The key differentiator in social networking in the future would be the range of privacy controls and customizable controls that a website offers (apart from richness of experience). Buzz scores very poorly in that respect.