Is Google Buzz a Facebook/Twitter Killer ?
I have a like-hate relationship with Facebook.
Ornery cuss that I am, I find the whole life-casting phenomena painfully trivial. Unless its a Seinfeld episode, I don’t care about how awesome their pizza was, their favorite team, the color their baby’s poo — all recent Facebook wall posts — the minor details of other people’s lives.
And, I suspect, neither do many other folks.
Look, I get it — its fun finding people from camp, junior high school, college whom you’ve lost touch with. I was contacted by a pre-nursery school neighbor who wanted to put his retired mom and my retired mom back in touch — they used to play Mah Jong together half century ago. There is a certain unique value to that.
So with my admission of luke-warmness towards FB, I have to ask the crew here: What are your thoughts on Google Buzz ? Is it, as some people have asserted, a destroyer of Facebook? A Twitter Killer?
And, did this — or will this — do anything to Google’s stock price?
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February 10th, 2010 at 8:22 pm
I have the same view of FB as you. It has been great to re-connect with people I have not seen in 25 years, stay in touch with family across-country, etc. But I do not care for all the trivial bits of info…
I haven’t played with Google Buzz yet, but my initial reaction is ‘do we really need more of this stuff?’ I can see where you’d want to improve on areas where FB is weak – sharing comments, links, photos, etc. with a unique sub-set of your friend list, for example. But there’s nothing radically new or different here, and certainly nothing to drive the stock price in my view.
February 10th, 2010 at 8:24 pm
Social media in its current form won’t last, so unless all these vanity communities evolve, there won’t be any need for Google Buzz to kill Facebook, etc. Will not significantly affect share price.
February 10th, 2010 at 8:30 pm
Oh..Crap, BR!
You get that “Big Screen”…..I hope your wife is doing okay…and after threatening “Facebook” for spreading your friends and relatives around you are now PROMOTING LINK to Google’s “new venture?”
I didn’t want to do it…but I clicked on the Google Link…and went as far as the video..(I’ll check that later) …but how much more of this “social networking” will be OVERLOAD? If you and (others) have had problems with “FaceBook” why would you want more of this?
BTW…as I remember you posted a much younger version of you on “FB” where you looked like the evil teen who would blow up buildings. And you had your nieces and nephews “friending Uncle Barry” when you were looking like that? LOL’s …..Hey we all have “alter identities here on the Net…but Sheesh.
Maybe it’s good for Google’s inflated stock to get into the “SN” thingy…but the best news I heard today about Google is that they might get into Network Streaming for our TV’s where they could do user content to stream and I could get rid of the trivial trash that infests my “Time/Warner Cable” that I pay for but watch little of.
I’m a big fan of User Content Selection. If Google could stream me “what I WANT TO WATCH”…..that’s more valuable than some other “copy cat” social networking thingy as a vanity site.
Do you know how many teen lives that “Face Book” has ruined? Do you know it’s the latest in a “bullying network” where instead of the usual stuff kids have to go through in “pecking order” in their community schools with BULLIES …they now have classmates stalking them and bullying them on “Face Book!” A young girl just committed suicide and I have a sister working in Administration of Boarding School for wealthy international kids down in Palm Beach, Fl. and they had one of their students die in a biking accident this Fall and kids from the school who didn’t like her posted on her “FaceBook page” cartoon photo shops of her riding her bike without a helmet and trashing her for dying because of that. Her parents went to the site to look for her friends posting condolences and saw the photoshop cartoons of her daughter’s biking…and jeering her death.
For al the good networking and contacts that folks make on “FB” there’s always the downside. Folks you never wanted to see again from earlier life, surfacing and sometimes it’s good and sometimes it just brings back bad memories one had to get over. For every reunion of folks who lost touch who are so delighted to reconnect…there’s probably thousands of misery stories of stalkings and vengefulness and just plain waste of time there.
I don’t know why we need more of this…but then look at our Mainstream Media…Copy Cats…of what’s successful once they have to do more of and each reincarnation becomes more seedy and more corrupted with commercialism.
I’ll hold my breath on the Google “FB” thingy until I get the video from the site.
You can see my “initial reaction” was so OTT that it’s probably TOO MUCH… and OTT for most readers here as it involves judgementalism and moralizing. But PFFFFTTTT on “Social Networking.” Privacy Give Aways and Invasion of Selfhood..!
February 10th, 2010 at 8:32 pm
For me, Facebook is warehouse storage for 40 years worth of relationships and contacts. I generally don’t play any of the games, and I generally don’t care about the trivia of everyone’s day to day existence.
But there are a few things I like about it. Without Facebook, there were people from my past that I probably would have never seen again, and I think that would have been a shame, honestly. I don’t care if their socks smell like pizza on any given day or if their child just won 4th place in the Trigonometry Bee, but I do like having some contact with them.
Still, I am growing tired of it. I am getting really tired of saying something vaguely political and having some dude from high school fill my inbox with Glenn Beck fueled tirades. I am also really tired of Facebook’s clunkiness and its inability to leave the format alone for more than a month.
So I have been looking for another way to keep up with closer friends but not necessarily close friends, and Google Buzz may fit that bill. I like the idea of having a smaller, closer knit group of folks without being bombarded with Quizzes that tell me what kind of celebrity or whale or fruit roll up I most resemble.
But I don’t have a lot of confidence that Google will kill Facebook. Google is obviously an impressive company, but when you take away their Search algorithm and their advertising, their track record is spotty. They seem to start out strong on projects but then let them fade away into nothing, as if they give employees time to start projects but not finish them. In many ways, they are like my Dad, who has been building a BBQ in our backyard for the last 40 years.
So I dunno. I am eager to try it out, but I don’t think Facebook should be quaking in their boots.
February 10th, 2010 at 8:42 pm
No one will use Google Buzz. No impact on stock price. Just like Google Wave. Engineer/manager’s special me-too pet project doesn’t change anything.
February 10th, 2010 at 8:50 pm
I think the multimedia capability of the Internet is only in its infancy. Plenty of room for more players.
February 10th, 2010 at 9:15 pm
Hide/Remove Google Buzz Updates from Your Gmail Inbox
If you just don’t have the bandwidth to manage one more set of social notifications automatically hitting your Gmail inbox, you may not be all that excited about this morning’s Google Buzz announcement. Luckily banishing Buzz from your inbox is easy.
Any Buzz notification automatically matches the Gmail query label:buzz, so all you’ve got to do is set up a quick filter to keep those Buzz notifications out of your inbox. Here’s how it works:
February 10th, 2010 at 9:20 pm
No. It’s not a facebook killer. Facebook’s new layout is the facebook killer. I don’t care that someone I know has an event in California. It shouldn’t be on my event list. But it is now.
People might use it like an googlegroup. Share something with your friends.
Friendster, now that is a facebook killer.
February 10th, 2010 at 9:22 pm
logged on to my gmail account and was greeted by what appeared to be a SPAM screen promoting Buzz – took a minute to find the opt out button-
someone said something recently about Google and BS – I concur
February 10th, 2010 at 9:32 pm
I am not a joiner (See Why I Don’t Do Social Networking Sites) I’m skeptical of crowds, have witnessed too many mass movements turned into lemmings.
Please forgive me if I do not accept your invitation to become a fan this or that (and if you knew me, you would know this is sometihng I have zero interest in). Please don’t market to me, or send me an app that asks for permission to perform the equivalent of sodomizing my hard drive. And as to the digital birthday card, nothing says I care less than “click here.”
The Facebook interface and structure is an entirely different annoyance we can address at some later date.
February 10th, 2010 at 9:44 pm
Google Buzz is a defensive response and will have no effect on the stock price. And with the Google/NSA partnership do users really want to keep feeding the machine?
February 10th, 2010 at 9:46 pm
“nothing says I care less than “click here.” ”
Priceless.
February 10th, 2010 at 9:50 pm
Barry, I’ve been a web designer for 15+ years and have been an avid Facebooker for only the past 2 years. I’ve built several commercial Fan pages drawing thousands of fans. Having said all that, I think Google has an uphill battle. Facebook is to Social Networking what Google is to Search. They do it that well. Facebook wasn’t the first. Myspace… remember that thing? They were the leader for a long time. I had an account there… all my friends did as well…. and you know what they didn’t do? They didn’t innovate. Facebook never stopped innovating. Now, Myspace is a joke. Facebook crossed a tipping point about a year to a year and a half ago. Now, it’s well established that they own social networking. When everyone from your kids, to your friends, to your grandparents are all using the same site for social networking, it’s safe to say they’re the dominant force. BTW, Yahoo has been doing the same thing, breaking into social networking… um, yet again… I’ve used Yahoo mail, IM, and my.yahoo since 1996-98… and it doesn’t really matter to me. They’re never going to reach the critical mass of use that Facebook is enjoying today, at least as long as Facebook keeps getting it right.
February 10th, 2010 at 9:59 pm
It’s too early to tell. We’ll have to see how Buzz develops, but at this infancy stage:
I don’t think so. They are sufficiently different applications so as to work well independently or (ideally) integrate with each other. Currently you can stream Twitter through Buzz, but Buzz isn’t yet Facebook-friendly.
What Buzz has shown so far today is that it does conversation threads on specific topics (single updates) pretty well. It’s Twitter with a more organized conversational element to it. It lets you see comments in threads from people that you aren’t following or that aren’t Gmail contacts necessarily. It’s also nice that it’s perfectly integrated with the Gmail inbox.
The status update ability of Facebook is just a part of its overall utility (including the questionable “utility” of a lot of its stupid features).
What I think Buzz will do for Google is give Google user profiles a much higher, er, profile. To date they have been, in my experience, under-used if used at all. But it is light-years away from Facebook’s profile functionality.
February 10th, 2010 at 10:07 pm
blueoysterjoe and I must have the same friends. I like the idea behind Buzz, but the reason I don’t go on facebook and share 40 stories a day from Google Reader is because I know 99.9% of the people I am friends with on facebook could hardly give a shit about the birth/death rate or China’s current account surplus. The people that DO care about it are generally like me, information fiends, and are already on Google Reader, and can see the stuff I share. I like how it is walled off, for the same reasons that blueoysterjoe mentioned. Its definitely nothing close to a facebook killer, but if Google can perfect the product (its incredibly public right now, people see pretty much everything you do, which is not cool when you’ve got people like your boss on your gmail contacts list), I could see it having knock-on effects on things like twitter.
February 10th, 2010 at 10:12 pm
Maybe I can offer some insight into the views of maybe a younger crowd (college kid)?
I do not think Google Buzz will be a Facebook killer. Hell I don’t think its new layout will kill Facebook. I have often called for its demise before with integration of new layouts and nothing has happened. I hate the whole Facebook experience. As long as people are nosey, and bored, there will be space for Facebook on the web. I think one of the key component of Facebook’s success is its ability to help you stalk people through their wall or pictures. A few minutes on a friends page and you know what they are doing, will be doing, have done, who they have done, where they go out, the list goes on. Integration into my gmail does nothing but make me steer away, I do not need anymore distractions when I am studying or searching for a lost email or powerpoint presentation. This isn’t even new to Google. Do a little bit of investigating and you’ll find Google’s Orkut. Facebook has the advantage of having an established user base and presence on the web. People, my age at least, do look for people to add so that it can litter their news feed. Sadly, I think Facebook’s evil is here to stay for a while, it seems Twitter wasn’t even able to topple it (to my sadness) as I read somewhere that its # of new viewers to the site has significantly slowed. I think the only hope to topple Facebook came from an old marketing rule. Things are cool until your parents start using it. No offense to the parents out there.
February 10th, 2010 at 10:37 pm
i dont know about google buzz……..
but the google voice service is simply incredible.
February 10th, 2010 at 10:41 pm
I rarely use Facebook anymore but I figured I would log in to see what sort of information I’ve been “missing out” on. My “news” feed includes the following…
Many pictures of snow – very useful. Now I don’t have to get up and walk over to the window.
Some sort of inside joke that I am inside enough to see the feed but not inside enough to get.
Several people seem to enjoy the “status” of other people. One person commented on their own status. I am confused.
Nothing says “let’s not hang out” like yet another FarmVille update from someone.
V-day related crapola.
Facebook stinks.
February 10th, 2010 at 10:59 pm
I share your view about Fb. blueoysterjoe has some very interesting points as well. All in all I don’t believe Buzz will kill Fb. And someone did make the point that Google has a very spotty record apart from it’s advertising and search.
February 10th, 2010 at 11:00 pm
Google Buzz will have good penetration among current gmail users. I have deleted all my FB and similar social networking accounts for privacy reasons, but I will use Buzz to post interesting articles and videos to a select group of friends whose contacts are already in my gmail account.
I doubt that Buzz will have great penetration among people who are not already using gmail.
February 10th, 2010 at 11:17 pm
I personally think the whole “social networking” craze has jumped the shark. A backlash against this superficial b.s. is brewing.
February 10th, 2010 at 11:25 pm
I am like you BR, I belong to Facebook, but my interest in it is evidenced by forgetting to sign on to it for days to weeks. Once in awhile, I like to go in and see what an exchange student from Bavaria we had with us for a year is doing. Really don’t find out a lot, because everything he says is in German and I have to keep going into an Internet interpreter to understand what he says. So I have no interest in Buzz because of that disinterest in Facebook. DUH!
February 10th, 2010 at 11:26 pm
I don’t think Google Buzz will be a needle mover.
I don’t think much of Google’s long term prospects or their business model.
I think Google’s stock price has declined more than the market on greater relative volume recently.
I really identifed with blueoysterjoe’s post.
February 10th, 2010 at 11:28 pm
I don’t use such as Facebook, Buzz, etc., but I second Barry’s feeling, “. . . I find the whole life-casting phenomena painfully trivial.” The whole interest is Ego, here in the land that, more than any other in history, Ego built. Adam Smith’s “principle of liberty” might be paraphrased as making the other guy’s Ego work for you. Most Americans believe that their Egos are immortal (the religious doctrine of personal immortality). Egoism turns every interpersonal encounter into an exercise in insincerity. It is indeed tedious, and trivial. Most of all the fetish of Ego brings a human emptiness that few can voice but all express–if only as a lack of compassion and its corollary, human solidarity. The received solution is more egoism, like an alcoholic’s taking another drink.
But I’ll grant you that it’s good for business. If Buzz presents an expensive way to be egoistically obnoxious, you can bet it’ll sell like hotcakes.
February 10th, 2010 at 11:46 pm
I am a serial connector — I really enjoy reconnecting with people from my past. That said, I’ve reached my limit of accounts IDs / passwords etc. No more room or time. I use LinkedIn which I find useful from a semi-professional perspective (and to see who know whom else… six degrees…) And I just use plain old e-mail to reconnect to with friends, even if it’s just a Christmas or year-end e-mail greeting…. Facebook would be too much of a time suck, although I’m sure I’d enjoy it. Never bothered with Twitter either. Bah.
February 11th, 2010 at 12:06 am
Online social networking tools like Facebook has given everyone an illusion that they’re somehow a “brand” and have somethign important to say. They’re not and they don’t. A nation of narcissists. Bah.
February 11th, 2010 at 12:25 am
The current bevy of highly paid, in-demand, technology celebrities are “experts” in social networking.
Let them have their 15 minutes of fame.
February 11th, 2010 at 12:25 am
[...] The Big Picture » Blog Archive » Is Google Buzz a Facebook Killer ? [...]
February 11th, 2010 at 1:57 am
Just my 2 cents… Facebook is a useful tool on staying in touch with your friends. For example, I ran into a few old friends at a party and I was able to piece together a very long conversation based off trivial postings. Bottomline is your experience is based on the people you reconnect with.
Sounds like a lot of you have crappy friends….
February 11th, 2010 at 1:57 am
I do find it odd that the most in depth and detailed comments to one of your posts has been about facebook.
What does that say about our society?
February 11th, 2010 at 2:01 am
It’s more of a twitter competitor vs Facebook. As facebook’s experience is far richer.
I’m curious why there are not more people commenting on this.
Secondly, it could provide a longer retention factor vs the search results alone and personally i feel that the addition of buzz within the same email platform is a natural extension that should have been done ages ago.
Kudos to Google to implementing that first. I’m waiting for v2, where integration between tweeter and fb wall posts happens seamlessly, not to mention a gadget for folks to add websites as a buzz.
http://darkartsmanagement.blogspot.com
February 11th, 2010 at 2:16 am
Who cares? Why would anyone over the age of 14 care about Facebook, Twitter, or any of that other social networking nonsense?
February 11th, 2010 at 3:51 am
If you have family and friends all over the world its a great way to share media. Email is so blah, with fb u can just upload stuff, no need to ‘share it’ or notify people – they see it automatically.
It was certainly a thousand times better before they introduced all that app crap. Its still useful. I think Google buzz could do well, everyone has a gmail account so we all have buzz already.
On the other hand there is a big difference between letting someone be a facebook friend and letting them have your email address. Also any company you have been a customer of or any work related emails will also have your buzz id.
February 11th, 2010 at 5:23 am
Facebook is a great free warehousing site for articles, pics, links etc with just the touch of a key. No more copy and paste into emails. For better or worse it does keep people in touch no matter how superficial in some cases. It provides a socially acceptable level of voyeurism. I mean who has not looked up someone from the past, found them, said nothing, but yet was able to see a sketch of their life thru posted pics etc covering the last 30 years and be happy for them. I think that has value even to the most jaded and more importantly so does the marketplace. As an added bonus it is not necessary to do the whole “friend” thing to participate for the most part.
In some respects Facebook discussions remind me of the same about the values of having a Starbucks show up in your neighborhood twenty years ago. The pros and cons of the sidewalk scene. Then as now I think it was one of the greatest things to happen to urban living. Laws had to be changed in virtually every city to allow tables and chairs on sidewalks. Things we take for granted now.
February 11th, 2010 at 6:07 am
Means nothing, imho. In essence it is all just communicating in different ways, the basic tenants haven’t changed.
I’ve been on a few boards for 9 years, the peak was 04-05, now they are 25% of what they were, the ones left are folks who are passionate about the subject, thus, it provides a needed service. If not at that site, we’d get the same info in the old ways, articles, subscription to magazines, talking to others.
So, these services will stay because 25% find them usefull, the rest of us will move on.
Passion is powerfull when it comes to sales, fads, etc. The initial movers loved it cause they are those folks who know everyone, as opposed to me, I know many, and the ones i’m close to i’ve kept in contact for decades and never lost contact, albeit, it might be a phone call every 2-3 years just checking in.
fwiw, not on any of em
February 11th, 2010 at 7:24 am
“Family Spends $5000 Per Year on Screen Related Services
February 10th, 2010
You have to understand, most of these people are not ready to be unplugged. And many of them are so inured, so hopelessly dependent on the system, that they will fight to protect it.
—Morpheus, The Matrix
Don’t breathe the air, don’t drink the water, don’t eat the food, but, being saturated with endless electronic bilge, wherever you are, is, “What is expected for people to be functional in society.”
The Matrix quotes and comparisons probably seem so old and overdone because, in the real world, today, people have jacked-in to an extent that was unthinkable—outside of SciFi circles—over a decade ago, when the film came out. The setting of that cautionary tale—The Matrix was just the most successful re-packaging of it—is now, for all intents and purposes, ubiquitous, cool, and, “expected” in a “functional society,” as the quote in the New York Times indicates.
Of course, those of us who have seen this coming, and tried to get off the bus (to some extent), or, at least, keep these developments in perspective, also know that we haven’t seen anything yet.
Via: New York Times:
John Anderson and Sharon Rapoport estimate they spend $400 a month, or close to $5,000 a year, keeping their family of four entertained at home.
There are the $30-a-month data plans on their BlackBerry Tour cellphones. The Roanoke, Va., couple’s teenage sons, Seth and Isaac, each have $50 subscriptions for Xbox Live and send thousands of texts each month on their cellphones, requiring their own data plans.
DirecTV satellite service, high-speed Internet access and Netflix for movie nights add more.
“We try to be aware of it so it doesn’t get out of control,” said Mr. Anderson, who with his wife founded an advertising agency. “But, yeah, I would say we’re pretty wired.”
…
http://cryptogon.com/?p=13614
as an aside, that Snow was excellent, seemed to give People (a much needed ‘day-off’/ time to be ‘home with the kids, etc..)
February 11th, 2010 at 9:01 am
Not sure if this “TwiggleBook” app will unseat Twitter or Facebook. It’s more likely to just bring everyone else into the fold who hasn’t already gotten trapped in the time-suck vacuum that Twitter and Facebook currently are (despite their utility).
February 11th, 2010 at 9:07 am
The deal with Facebook was that it was a restricted community for awhile for the “cool kids” in select colleges. That “buzz” was what made it seem superior to the rag-tag mob that Myspace became. Elitism is a very well worn marketing path. G-mail was “cool” at first because you had to get an invite. Buzz needed to be introduced in a way that made it exclusive and hence cool.
So basically I’m saying they botched the introduction of the service. The more they keep people out (the velvet ropes) the more they want in.
February 11th, 2010 at 9:14 am
Well, since I don’t have any friends, I’m not a fan of Facebook. Anything which allows community to develop has some intrinsic value. That said, Facebook had better find a sustainable business model. I’d like to see the actual finances. All I can say is I am glad I am not an investor because this has all of the trappings of musical chairs, a pyramid scheme, a Ponzi scheme or whatever. In other words, at some point the rubber is going to meet the road and there will be a forced situation where the company needs to be priced at fair value. At that point in time, there aren’t going to be enough chairs for the overly enthusiastic investors.
February 11th, 2010 at 9:58 am
If you’re the private type of person, any SN site won’t do you any good. But for business people, they do have some value. A while ago, I’ve read about this company (TVI I think) who started posting forum threads on facebook and it just ballooned out of proportion… but in a good way. It made heir company more visible and since you can’t hide your identity on FB, poeple really responded with a sense of accountability and responsibility.
Well, anyway, with regard to Goofle Buzz, I haven’t really tinkered with it yet. Let’s see where it goes. I’n sure it will find a place in this plugged generation.
February 11th, 2010 at 11:13 am
Don’t you need Gmail to use Buzz?
THAT’S why Google’s products won’t “kill” anything: the hardest thing in the world to get people to change is their email. That’s why AOL STILL EXISTS, in direct opposition to all logic and reason.
Facebook, Twitter, MySpace – none of these require you to set up a new email address. They ask nothing from you in return for their free service, other than your time.
Also, blueoysterjoe’s amusing “Google is obviously an impressive company, but when you take away their Search algorithm and their advertising, their track record is spotty” is the same as saying “MSFT is a great company, but when you take away Windows and Office, things get a little more dicey.” Good stuff.
February 11th, 2010 at 12:45 pm
“And as to the digital birthday card, nothing says I care less than “click here.” ”
I have to disagree. I love giving and receiving random cards from someecards.com. Digital cards are good if they’re funny.
February 11th, 2010 at 4:00 pm
Google Buzz: too late. Facebook has already cornered the networking market and twitter has got the mass broadcasting market. Nothing new and nothing amazingly better than will cause millions of users to switch.
February 11th, 2010 at 4:01 pm
You can understand Google wanting to get a piece of all that social networking and status updating traffic, and you can understand why it would prefer those who use the new Buzz social features in Gmail to do so as widely and openly as possible. But looking at the assumptions behind the default Buzz setup, you have to wonder whether the Googlers have so thoroughly embraced the vision of one great world of sharing that they’ve grown out of touch with the privacy concerns of the rest of us.
If that’s the case, then there’s probably some dismayed surprise around the Googleplex today at the backlash over the implementation of Buzz. Among the complaints:
* Buzz automatically sets you up with followers and other users to follow, based on the Gmail contacts you most often e-mail or chat with. This is awkward enough, since those contacts may include business associates or others who don’t qualify as share-worthy friends. But more troublesome, unless you edit your settings, the list of followers and followees can be seen by anyone on your Google profile page — a very public showcase of the people you’re in touch with most often.
* If you use the vanity URL on your Google Profile page, that identifies your Gmail address, and if anyone sends an @ reply to you via Buzz, they are broadcasting that address far and wide.
* On the mobile side of Buzz, if you choose to Share Location, you should know that you’re sharing not only with your followers but with anybody who happens to be scanning the Buzz entries in a particular geographic area.
There are options and settings for taking these matters in hand, but they are not particularly obvious or intuitive and require some opt-out tweaking that less savvy users may not know about or bother with.
As Molly Woods writes at CNet: “Most people still think of e-mail as a safe place for speaking privately with friends and family. And for Google to come along and broadcast that network to the world without asking first — and force you to turn it off after the fact — is, I think, both shocking and unacceptable. I will not re-enable or recommend Google Buzz until it has a brand-spanking-new configuration screen at start-up, with yes or no options like, ‘automatically follow all contacts?’ and ‘display list of people I’m following and who follow me?’ and ‘use e-mail handle as Google Buzz username?’ as well as privacy options in the mobile interface that include ‘broadcast to nearby users?’
February 11th, 2010 at 11:01 pm
Aardvark co-founder and top strategy manager Max Ventilla told Reuters his company had signed a deal to be acquired by Google “recently,” but would not comment on the price.
A report on the technology blog TechCrunch said the deal was for $50 million, citing a source briefed on the transaction.
A source familiar with the situation told Reuters the deal was expected to close within the next week.
The purchase represents the latest sign of Google’s interest in the fast-growing social networking market, ruled by companies like Facebook and Twitter. On Tuesday, Google introduced a new product called Google Buzz that integrates Twitter-like social networking features directly into its Gmail Web-based email service.
Aardvark, which counts two ex-Google employees among its founders, has pioneered a new type of Internet search dubbed “social search.” Instead of looking at Web pages to find answers to search queries, Aardvark’s service taps a person’s network of social contacts…
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE61A4WU20100211?loomia_ow=t0:s0:a49:g43:r3:c0.071429:b30543416:z0
Reporting by Alexei Oreskovic, editing by Maureen Bavdek
February 11th, 2010 at 11:37 pm
I try everything. On FB, I limit my friends to people I already know, as I also do on location based services. That way I eliminate stalkers and can see my brother in my newsfeed. Twitter I use for breaking news and discovery; I mainly follow journos, bloggers, and geeks on my @hardaway account, and Arizona entrepreneurs on my az entrepreneurs account.
For the past 48 hours of experimenting with Buzz, I’ve found a filter to keep it out of my invox, and a way to post my Buzz to Twitter, and a way to limit the number of people I’m following and shut off the view of people I follow and those who folloq me.
It’s not going to kill either Tiwtter of FB, but it’s very, very good for actually having a conversation.
February 12th, 2010 at 12:51 am
One review you might consider.
http://fugitivus.wordpress.com/2010/02/11/fuck-you-google/
February 13th, 2010 at 5:18 pm
http://www.scotxblog.com/legal-tech/gmails-turn-off-buzz-still-does-not-turn-off-buzz-heres-how-to-really-do-it/