To say that social media has “changed the dynamics of how we use the Internet” would be an understatement. Since the launch of Orkut in 2004, Google has jumped on the social media bandwagon with its arch-rivals Facebook and Twitter. The latest edition of Google’s suite of web applications is Google Buzz, a new tool aimed at steering users away from other social networking sites.

What is Google Buzz?

Google Buzz is an email-enabled social media outlet that is (according to some) going to take the social media world by storm. It is designed to allow users to share photos, videos, links, and status updates with their friends, as well as discuss shared content. It’s very similar to Facebook News Feed in that regard. It’s also similar to FriendFeed, a social sharing service acquired by Facebook last year with a small but devoted following.

The best thing about this app is that it’s easy to integrate in one step with users’ existing Gmail accounts, something Google is probably counting on to make this product a success. With a user base of 174 million ‘Gmailers’, Google Buzz is looking for a large pool of potential users.

What is not so good is that it is similar to many services that are already on the market. Google Buzz seems like a “me too” product. People already have a plethora of ways to share content with their friends: Facebook and Twitter are two popular options. Blogging is another. Sending text and picture messages via email to friends is still very popular. So, will Google Buzz make consumers change?

Dealing with the competition:

With a strong loyal user base of 400 million, social media giant Facebook has been in business since 2007 and is gobbling up the market pie faster by the minute. By constantly innovating and adding new features, Facebook has been able to attract and retain more users than any other social networking site, and is Google’s #1 competitor. It is followed in second place by Twitter, with 18 million registered users.

Over the years, Google has made several attempts to catch up with the competition, but has failed to pull it off.

Unstable trajectory:

Google hasn’t exactly established itself in the social media space. The search engine giant has been struggling to build a loyal customer base and seems to ship more apps than the market can handle. Most famously, Orkut failed to take off outside of India and Brazil, and Google’s other social networking efforts also crashed in the marketplace: Dodgeball, Jaiku, and OpenSocial, to name three.

More recently, Google launched Google Wave, another means of sharing information, data, and opinions, which didn’t really take off. Google representatives admitted that Buzz was inspired by Google Wave, describing it as “an online tool for real-time communication and collaboration.” “A wave can be both a conversation and a document where people can discuss and work together using rich text, photos, videos, maps, and more.” Basically, Google Wave is email, instant messaging, an online collaboration tool, and a wiki all rolled into one service. So what is the difference between Buzz and Wave?

buzz vs wave:

Google Buzz uses email updates, while Google Wave is real-time communication (you can actually see someone type their response or comment on an individual wave). Wave was built with collaboration features like editing a document, planning an event, creating meeting notes, and so on. But if you just want to share photos, videos, or comments that don’t require real-time communication, then Google Buzz is probably the best option.

One of the problems with Wave is that it’s a difficult tool to explain to others, and once you understand what Wave is, it’s even more difficult to understand everything you can do with it. Buzz, on the other hand, works similar to email and focuses on one thing: sharing content with others. This is probably one of the reasons why Google Wave didn’t work as well as everyone hoped.

However, Google Buzz could prove to be much more promising than its predecessor:

Buzz, from day one, is a better and more elegant service than Facebook has become after six years. Part of this is because Facebook had to create its network from scratch and was a pioneer in the category, giving it a lot of baggage to overcome at this point. Meanwhile, Google has the advantage of building on Gmail and being able to grab good ideas from both Facebook and Twitter. I call this “second mover advantage”. Google Buzz is simple, elegant and quite fast. Buzz makes it easy to include photos and other media in posts, which is an advantage over Facebook. Google is not in the habit of making major changes when users are comfortable with previous changes. Facebook seems adrift; Google No.

Google’s privacy beats Facebook’s privacy. Despite number 1 below, Google generally gets good marks for protecting user data. Facebook has had a series of privacy issues that have created considerable distrust among users. Buzz works within Gmail. Having social media integrated into an app that most people live with makes email a more natural part of communication, not a separate online destination and process. The Gmail users in your contact list are the foundation of your community. Buzz automatically builds relationships, resulting in a social network that includes more of your existing friends, as long as they use Gmail. Making networks automatically has advantages and disadvantages, but it seems like a benefit to the user.

Marketing potential:

Another point I would like to highlight is the fact that while Facebook has carved a niche for itself in the ‘casual and purely social’ space, Google Buzz has the potential to target the business user space. As many people today also use Gmail and Gtalk for professional use, the chances of users building sustainable business networks on this platform are high. This leaves plenty of room for B2B marketers to learn how to use this medium effectively.