Google Buzz

Google is trying its hand once again at Social Networking with their newest product called Buzz. It is also known as Google Buzz and Gmail Buzz. The plan is for it to compete against Facebook and Twitter. Thats a tall order, but in its first day Google has managed to create a ton of Buzz about Buzz. About 9 hours after the anouncement and it was #7 on Twitter's top trending topics worldwide. 21 hours later and its moved up to #2. Pretty impressive.

Buzz is already live today for some users, but not for me yet. Once live It will work from within your Gmail account. But stay tuned because I will tell you how to use it even if its not yet enabled in your Gmail. How sweet is that?

Google Buzz will be partially integrated with Twitter, meaning you can send Tweets to Twitter, but not the other way around, at least not yet. It will also work with Flickr and Picasa. For now Facebook integration is a big check mark on the to do list. Why would Facebook actually help Google to compete against them?

Once Google activates Buzz within your Gmail account you will see a new Buzz icon just below your inbox. What is cool is that this uses your preexisting contact list in Gmail.This will work like Twitter, anyone may follow you, unless you manually block them. Your Google profile will need to be public for you to be able to use Buzz, otherwise you can create a new profile.

One way Buzz is different from Twitter is that your not limited to only 140 characters. You are free to post very long messages, it will auto show YouTube videos and quickly show pictures. Your Buzzes can be either made public for anyone to see, or private.

While using what was probably one of the first public Buzz post the first day Buzz was released I noticed when you mouse over a persons name you get a little popup window that highlights their Google profile. Within this window you see: their profile picture, where they are from, status, about the first 10 links from their profile and a link to view their full profile. Clicking their name takes you to a page with a Follow button. Feel free to follow me on my Blaaam Profile page.

Ok here is how to use Buzz before its enabled in your Gmail account. First you will need to have a Gmail account with a profile that is public. If you don't have either one already go do that first. Register for a Gmail account. Next you will need to have Safari Browser installed. If you don't have it yet go download Safari.

Now you will need to make a few minor changes to your Safari setup to fool Buzz into thinking your using a mobile phone. Don't worry this is as simple as stealing honey from a bee.

Click the gear icon top right corner of Safari. Then "Preferences". Then in the new window that pops up click on the "Advanced" tab. Next you will "Check" near the bottom where it says "Show Develop menu in menu bar." Now close the "Preferences" window. You will now see in the menu bar up top a "Develop" section, click that. Now click "User Agent" and finally either "Mobile Safari 3.1.2 - iPod Touch" Or "Mobile Safari 3.1.2 - iPod iPhone"

From now on Buzz will be tricked into thinking your using a mobile device and it will work for you untill you get it in your Gmail account which may be days away.

I have created a new Buzz post that you can try out to get you feet wet. HubPages.com Google Buzz Post. You will need to access the Buzz post I made from Safari or a regular Buzz account.

Feel free to ask any question you may have below in the comments section. Especially if you have trouble setting up Safari to work with Google Buzz. I only speak English though. Your welcome to leave your thoughts and opinions about Buzz too.

See you in Google Buzz!

Minor Update: Initially Google Buzz had serious privacy implications due to its opt-out rather than the standard opt-in policy. This has been corrected recently. Kudos to Google for listening to user concerns and acting swiftly to rectify the problems.

By Anthony Goodley ©Anthony Goodley 2010 All Rights Reserved Worldwide.
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