I just set up Google Wave Google Buzz for one of my Gmail accounts. My initial impression is that this is a tool with a lot of potential (unlike that other GTool that was supposed to change email forever).
Tim O’Reilly posted a good overview and perspective on the newest Google buzz, detailing how it brings the ‘power of asymmetric following to email.’ If you’re wondering how it’s different from Google Wave (and why it’s better), O’Reilly says it’s because of the Gmail integration:
In some ways, Gmail Buzz brings many of the benefits of Google Wave to Gmail. Every Buzz item can be turned into a conversation (much as in Wave or Friendfeed.) People can comment on your Buzz, comment on your comments, or @ reply you. Sure, it lacks the hyper-cool wiki-style shared editing features (though those perhaps could be added in a future release), but it also lacks the critical flaw that made Wave into more of a “concept car” than a real product: I don’t have to adopt a new tool or build a new social network. It just adds rich new capabilities into the tool and network that I already use.
That’s exactly right. I tried to use Google Wave a couple of months ago with several of my friends, but we abandoned it after a few half-hearted sessions. The lack of Gmail integration was a primary factor. It also wasn’t very compelling, given that we already used other tools that did similar things. And that’s another reason that Buzz is better: it connects to other sites we already use, most notably Google Reader and Twitter.
