Considering the current three-way tussle between Facebook, Twitter and MySpace, you’d think the social network battleground was sufficiently populated by heavyweight combatants eager to secure the biggest online community. Evidently, no one thought to tell Google.
But will it put a bee in the bonnets of Facebook and Twitter? Image: Google.
Already the world’s leading search provider – and having recently expanded its reach with the Chrome browser and Android mobile operating system – Google is now looking to elbow its way to the front of the social networking pack with Buzz.
Built directly into Google’s Gmail platform in order to provide users with an instant list of approved friends, the new Buzz service is described as a way to start conversations about the things you find interesting with those you email and chat to the most.
“We focused on building an easy-to-use sharing experience that richly integrates photos, videos and links, and makes it easy to share publicly or privately (so you don’t have to use different tools to share with different audiences),” outlined Todd Jackson, Google’s product manager for both Gmail and Buzz.
“Plus, Buzz integrates tightly with your existing Gmail inbox, so you’re sure to see the stuff that matters most as it happens in real time,” he added in an official Google blog post.
Eager to have outside services and developers interact with and improve Buzz, Google has said its new networking tool has not been designed to be a closed system – with that openness already enabling users to connect to the likes of Twitter and Flickr from within the Gmail framework.
“Our goal is to make Buzz a fully open and distributed platform for conversations,” said Jackson. “We’re building on a suite of open protocols to create a complete read/write developer API, and we invite developers to join us on Google Code to see what is available today and to learn more about how to participate.”
Also available in a specially designed mobile flavour, Buzz is presently being rolled out to Gmail account holders and will also be made available to businesses and schools using Google Apps, with added features for sharing within organisations.
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