FYI
Sent to you by jtang via Google Reader: Facebook on Google Buzz: How
Well Does That Friendship Model Work? via ReadWriteWeb by Jolie
O'Dell
on 2/9/10
While end users are eager to try out Google Buzz for themselves, many
of the Web's largest social properties have expressed a certain
amount
of fear, uncertainty and doubt about the search giant's move into the
social space.
A Facebook rep said that the company is interested to see how
Google's
latest product will make the Web more social and more open, but the
Facebook team has their concerns about whether Buzz's friendship
model
is really all that functional. After a little bit of messing around
with the new product today, we can understand their point of view.
Sponsor
ReadWriteWeb's full coverage and analysis of Google Buzz:
"We're supportive of technologies that help make the web more social
and the world more open," a Facebook rep wrote to us today, "and
we're
interested to see how Google Buzz progresses over time."
However, the Facebooker had words of warning about Buzz's hazy
friendship model.
To offer a brief explanation, Google has taken users' Gmail inboxes
and
Google Talk IM contacts and programmatically tried to determine with
whom users communicate most frequently. Users can share Buzz posts
with
the world (and Google search), or they can share privately through
their existing Gmail groups or custom-made groups in Buzz. For more
detail, take a look at this demo video:
Google Buzz seems to involve an asymmetric follower/friend model, but
we're not completely sure how friendships and shared posts will work.
As our Facebooker wrote, "The continued growth of the social web will
be determined by people and personal relationships. The people that
you
email and chat with the most may not be your closest friends or the
people that you want to share and connect with."
We can definitely understand this point of view. Some folks rarely
use
Gmail to communicate with their closest friends and family members
because they see them in person or use other networks to get in
touch.
On the flip side of that coin, as more of us are using Gmail for work
communication, it might be irrelevant or overly personal to follow
and
share with professional contacts.
All in all, one of our biggest concerns about Buzz adoption (being
able
to play nicely with existing social apps) carries over into this part
of the conversation, as well: In addition to creating "best guesses"
for who to friend and follow using Gmail & Google Talk, why doesn't
Google simply use Twitter OAuth and Facebook Connect to import
existing
friendships?
What do you think? Will Google Buzz's friendship model work? Or does
Facebook have a point about having carefully user-approved
friendships
online?
Discuss
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