Google Buzz: do we really need another social networking site?
Febuary 11, 2010. By Arnold Rapinan
Google just announced their second social networking site called Google Buzz, eight months after the launched of Google Wave. I wonder if they will eventually combine both services. I understand that Google Buzz is a direct attack to the ever-growing dominance of both Facebook and Twitter, but do we really need another social networking site in an already very crowded field? I know I don’t, unless (and highly unlikely) all of my families, friends and colleagues suddenly switch to Google. It may sound contradictory, but since I already have a Gmail account, I went ahead and setup my Google Buzz. So far it’s like a big, empty party that no one showed up. To be fair, Google Buzz is only a couple days old.
So for now, I am staying with Facebook. After all, in online social networking world, Facebook is the king with over 400 million users and growing. With that kind of user based, the advertising and other potential revenue is huge. So it’s natural that technology heavy hitters like Google, Microsoft’s Windows Live Spaces, Yahoo’s 360, News Corp’s MySpace and startup companies like Bebo, Twitter, LinkedIn, Friendster, hi5 and Orkut (to name a few) wants a (huge) piece of the pie. Eventually, some of these social networks will die, others will consolidate and a few strong ones will prevail. For Google, they have thier work cut out for them and have lots of catching up to do with Facebook. For now, one thing is clear: online social networking is here to stay. Let the battle continue!