Google Buzz Review

Google Buzz has launched recently and has got a overwhelming response. Google made a smart move by integrating Buzz within Gmail to compete Facebook. By integrating it into Gmail, Google made sure that people will use Buzz as they do check their emails for sure.  This is something they lacked with their highly hyped product Wave.

Google's previous attempts into Social Networking have been Orkut which went well in some countries but could not compete the leader Facebook and headed downwards. Wave was over hyped and articles were spread all over internet with tips and tricks. Invites were being sold online to get hands on Google Wave. It lasted for a few weeks and died out of the news.

Now it's Google Buzz with some smarter moves from Google. Buzz has some advantages as well as disadvantages. Let's check things one by one.

No Setup needed 
As soon as Google Buzz gets enabled for your Gmail account you automatically start following the people whom you chat and email the most. Similarly those people start following you.
Good: You don't need to start from scratch. Google does something for you so that you can start using it easily.
Bad: Why on earth would one want to follow everyone he email's or chat's the most? Isn't there thing called privacy? By doing this Google shares the information about my contacts,  share details about  whom I chat or email to my other followers till I don't setup my account properly.

Click here to read how to hide whom you follow and your followers from others.

Inbox integration
Whenever a new comment is posted to on your post or anyone else's post where you have commented they are sent right in your Inbox.
Good: Great to be updated with the conversation and keep the conversation moving.
Bad: If you comment on a Post with lots of comments your Inbox gets flooded with emails.

Click to read How to block Buzz Notifications.

Share publicly or privately
Buzz gives you an option to share your ideas with the entire world on a selected few people when posting.  Nice to have feature.

Connect sites you already use
You can connect to the sites you are already using to import the stuff. Sites supported are Twitter, Picasa, Flickr, Blogger and Google Reader.
Good: Allows importing your stuff, feeds etc.
Bad: Could not see Facebook integration. People use FB heavily. Tried setting up Twitter and god knows why but Google never asked me for login details for my Twitter account.