What Buzz needs to do to knock FACEBOOK down a notch - GoFuckYourself.com

$5 submissions · 02-18-2010, 02:31 AM

http://staynalive.com/articles/2010/...g-in-facebook/

Overall, this is a great list of improvements that Buzz needs to capitalize on (besides its installed base of 146 million monthly users (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gmail). By highlighting its weaknesses, it also, to those looking for traffic potential, highlight the "sociability" potential of Buzz

With that said, I think the suggested PORTABILITY of existing installed friend base on Facebook would be WISHFUL THINKING. Sure it would allow for a seamless transfer of users from FB to GBuzz but that's like FB handing a gun to Google and inviting the "non-evil" company to blow its brains out. It took years of constant evolution and effort to get that massive user base, I don't think FB would piss away that competitive advantage...

Quote:

Buzz Needs the Ability to Import my Facebook Contacts

Lastly, in order to compete with Facebook, Buzz needs my Facebook friends. They?re not going to get those through my Gmail contacts. Most of my Facebook friends are not in my Gmail Contacts. The only way they?re going to gain access to my Facebook friends is via the Facebook API. It?s time for Google to suck it up, work with Facebook, and find ways of integrating my friend list from Facebook into the Google environment. We?ve waited too long for this with Google Friend Connect, and surely there?s a win-win option for both companies to allow this and work together. Win-win for them is win-win for the user.

Let?s look at Aardvark (recently purchased by Google), for instance. If you log into Aardvark with your Facebook login, it will immediately detect who in your Facebook contacts are also on Aardvark, and immediately add them as friends on Aardvark. The site, Digg.com also does this well ? all my Facebook friends are automatically added as Digg friends as they log into Digg through Facebook. There should be no problem with Buzz following Facebook?s developer terms of service and integrating this into their own environment. Facebook provides hooks into its APIs for doing this exact thing.

Iron Fist · 02-18-2010, 02:37 AM

Pretty much... G-Mail is big, but Facebook is even bigger if you can imagine that... and a LOT of people on Facebook never ever got G-Mail invites because 99% of them were NOT geeks who coveted the invite-only passes for registration, so they signed up with either Hotmail or Yahoo.

Now if Google can think of a way of making it STUPID easy to convert to GMail to attract some more people over, they also stand a good chance to take on FB for being the dominant player in the social sphere. Next, interactive gaming and that's pretty much it.

Angry Jew Cat - Banned for Life · 02-18-2010, 02:48 AM

It's pretty funny how a search giant like Google creates a social project like Buzz, which features a search function that is absolutely atrocious. There are already 3rd party Buzz searches smashing Buzz's own inhouse search function. I'd say they have some serious cleaning up to do.

$5 submissions · 02-18-2010, 02:59 AM

I hear ya. I think it's more of a paranoid move from Google because it is beginning to look like SOCIAL SHARING traffic will eclipse SEARCH TRAFFIC as the primary way people discover websites. Of course, there's the relevancy issue and, since we're all marketers here, there's a lot of KOOLAID DRINKING to the notion that Socially shared content is more TRUSTWORTHY than SEO'd shit. Just from experience, they can both be shit and... given the massive saturation of spam at Twitter... social content can sometimes be LESS trustworthy than searched content.

Quote:

Originally Posted by sharphead

Pretty much... G-Mail is big, but Facebook is even bigger if you can imagine that... and a LOT of people on Facebook never ever got G-Mail invites because 99% of them were NOT geeks who coveted the invite-only passes for registration, so they signed up with either Hotmail or Yahoo.

Now if Google can think of a way of making it STUPID easy to convert to GMail to attract some more people over, they also stand a good chance to take on FB for being the dominant player in the social sphere. Next, interactive gaming and that's pretty much it.

mynameisjim · 02-18-2010, 03:20 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Angry Jew Cat

It's pretty funny how a search giant like Google creates a social project like Buzz, which features a search function that is absolutely atrocious. There are already 3rd party Buzz searches smashing Buzz's own inhouse search function. I'd say they have some serious cleaning up to do.

I agree.

Other than it's luck with Adwords which it sort of fell ass backwards into during a flury of aquisitions, Google has a very poor track record.

They seem like a company that seriously lacks direction but it's that same lack of direction that tricks people into thinking they have some secret master plan.

98% of their income comes from Adwords and in nearly a decade they've been unable to deliver a single additional revenue stream of any significance despite their near dominance in the marketplace.

Not to mention, everything they have done, has been a copy cat project.

seeandsee · 02-18-2010, 04:22 AM

stupid gmail team and their invites, with open system they would rock now

$5 submissions · 02-18-2010, 03:44 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mynameisjim

I agree.

Other than it's luck with Adwords which it sort of fell ass backwards into during a flury of aquisitions, Google has a very poor track record.

They seem like a company that seriously lacks direction but it's that same lack of direction that tricks people into thinking they have some secret master plan.

98% of their income comes from Adwords and in nearly a decade they've been unable to deliver a single additional revenue stream of any significance despite their near dominance in the marketplace.

Not to mention, everything they have done, has been a copy cat project.

Yeah, I hear you. Groups went nowhere. Knol still hasn't seriously challenged Wikipedia. Google even had a version of Yahoo Answers. Lots of pretty new ribbons on a one trick pony?

Agent 488 · 02-18-2010, 03:46 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by $5 submissions

I hear ya. I think it's more of a paranoid move from Google because it is beginning to look like SOCIAL SHARING traffic will eclipse SEARCH TRAFFIC as the primary way people discover websites.

already happening. google has been in a defensive position when it comes to search innovation for the last year.

Angry Jew Cat - Banned for Life · 02-18-2010, 03:49 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by $5 submissions

Yeah, I hear you. Groups went nowhere. Knol still hasn't seriously challenged Wikipedia. Google even had a version of Yahoo Answers. Lots of pretty new ribbons on a one trick pony?

They haven't completely failed in all their ventures. I'd consider Maps/Earth successes. So far Books is on a pretty good track, blowing the competition out of the water..

halfpint · 02-18-2010, 03:59 PM

Its gonna be hard converting Facebook users over to Buzz. The users on Facebook are very familiar with how Facebook works and trying to change them to using a different social platform wont be easy I actually hope that google fail miserably with this cause the more I use google the more I hate the way they influence the web

$5 submissions · 02-18-2010, 04:06 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Angry Jew Cat

They haven't completely failed in all their ventures. I'd consider Maps/Earth successes. So far Books is on a pretty good track, blowing the competition out of the water..

Good point about Google Earth/Maps. The tagged maps is looking like a good springboard to the potentially explosive Augmented Reality/Smartphone space.

Agent 488 · 02-18-2010, 04:09 PM

the physical proximity of private email and social space is disconcerting on a visceral level.

it really needs it's own domain.

Emma · 02-18-2010, 04:12 PM

Good luck and Happy Buzzing!

Angry Jew Cat - Banned for Life · 02-18-2010, 04:16 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Agent 488

it really needs it's own domain.

that was the very first thing that struck me as odd when i first looked into buzz.

$5 submissions · 02-18-2010, 04:56 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by halfpint

Its gonna be hard converting Facebook users over to Buzz. The users on Facebook are very familiar with how Facebook works and trying to change them to using a different social platform wont be easy I actually hope that google fail miserably with this cause the more I use google the more I hate the way they influence the web

They seem to be everywhere. Also, through ADSENSE, they pretty much SHAPED a large % of the Internet. Not necessarily bad--there's tons of long tail content now.

candyflip · 02-18-2010, 05:20 PM

Until they have Fishville, Bejeweled, Mafia Wars or that fucking Diner game, they don't have a chance against Facebook.

$5 submissions · 02-18-2010, 05:41 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by candyflip

Until they have Fishville, Bejeweled, Mafia Wars or that fucking Diner game, they don't have a chance against Facebook.

hehehe, facebook apps OWN! I think you mean farmville

enozgirl · 02-18-2010, 06:23 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by candyflip

Until they have Fishville, Bejeweled, Mafia Wars or that fucking Diner game, they don't have a chance against Facebook.

Well, how else will anyone have 1000+ friends?

Nysus · 02-18-2010, 09:06 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Angry Jew Cat

It's pretty funny how a search giant like Google creates a social project like Buzz, which features a search function that is absolutely atrocious. There are already 3rd party Buzz searches smashing Buzz's own inhouse search function. I'd say they have some serious cleaning up to do.

I kind of think Google is doing what Google does best. They put a product out and letting everyone else criticize the crap out of it including doing innovations that they can pick the best from and implement.

$5 submissions · 02-18-2010, 09:07 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by enozgirl

Well, how else will anyone have 1000+ friends?

Mafiawars is EXTREMELY addictive

02-18-2010, 02:37 AM	#2
Iron Fist Too lazy to set a custom title Join Date: Dec 2006 Posts: 23,400	Pretty much... G-Mail is big, but Facebook is even bigger if you can imagine that... and a LOT of people on Facebook never ever got G-Mail invites because 99% of them were NOT geeks who coveted the invite-only passes for registration, so they signed up with either Hotmail or Yahoo. Now if Google can think of a way of making it STUPID easy to convert to GMail to attract some more people over, they also stand a good chance to take on FB for being the dominant player in the social sphere. Next, interactive gaming and that's pretty much it. __________________ i like waffles

02-18-2010, 04:22 AM	#6
seeandsee Check SIG! Industry Role: Join Date: Mar 2006 Location: Europe (Skype: gojkoas) Posts: 50,945	stupid gmail team and their invites, with open system they would rock now __________________ BUY MY SIG - 50$/Year Contact here

02-18-2010, 03:59 PM	#10
halfpint GFY's Halfpint Industry Role: Join Date: Jun 2007 Location: UK Posts: 15,223	Its gonna be hard converting Facebook users over to Buzz. The users on Facebook are very familiar with how Facebook works and trying to change them to using a different social platform wont be easy I actually hope that google fail miserably with this cause the more I use google the more I hate the way they influence the web __________________ Get FREE website listings on Cryptocoinshops.net

02-18-2010, 05:20 PM	#16
candyflip Carpe Visio Industry Role: Join Date: Jul 2002 Location: New York Posts: 43,057	Until they have Fishville, Bejeweled, Mafia Wars or that fucking Diner game, they don't have a chance against Facebook. __________________ Spend you some brain. Email Me

02-18-2010, 02:48 AM	#3
Angry Jew Cat - Banned for Life (felis madjewicus) Industry Role: Join Date: Jul 2006 Location: In Mom & Dad's Basement Posts: 20,368	It's pretty funny how a search giant like Google creates a social project like Buzz, which features a search function that is absolutely atrocious. There are already 3rd party Buzz searches smashing Buzz's own inhouse search function. I'd say they have some serious cleaning up to do.

02-18-2010, 04:09 PM	#12
Agent 488 Registered User Industry Role: Join Date: Feb 2006 Posts: 22,511	the physical proximity of private email and social space is disconcerting on a visceral level. it really needs it's own domain.

02-18-2010, 04:12 PM	#13
Emma Confirmed User Join Date: Apr 2003 Location: England Posts: 2,288	Good luck and Happy Buzzing!