Google moves into social networking with Buzz

Google today announced a move into the social networking sphere with a new platform for Gmail users called Google Buzz.

Buzz uses Gmail contacts to build a social network and which interacts with YouTube, Flickr, Picassa, Blogger and Twitter to share media. A mobile version of Buzz also interacts with GPS to allow geotagging information to be shares, and users can see if anyone on Buzz has made a comment about a place or business nearby.

The company said that an enterprise version would be pout very shortly and Google was already using a version internally, which co-founder Sergey Brin said was very compelling and a real boost to productivity.

“Social services on the internet have evolutions,” he said.

“This is another very compelling evolution, a meeting of social networking and productivity. Past services have focussed on friends and entertainment but we’re seen a huge amount of productivity from using Google internally.”

Social networking was a great platform but the amount of information users needed to process to heavy and some was getting lost as networks get too large said Tod Jackson, product manager for Buzz.

“Organising social information on the web is a Google-sized problem, a problem of the type Google likes to solve,” he said.

Google will apply its search technology to the data generated by social networks and will filter and refine it Jackson said. It will also recommend material and use the user’s acceptance or rejection of posts to refine what data they get in the future.

Users can also set up more private custom groups to suit different needs, and post to one or all. All posts will be recorded on a user proifile hosted by Google.

On the mobile side Buzz has been integrated with Google’s existing location applications and the interface with GPS phones allows users to show where they are online and post up comments directly from other users locally.

“Maybe you’re at a concert and want to know other attendees feelings, going out for dinner and want feedback on a restaurant, you can find out which has the most interesting buzz by be able to see what people around you are saying,” said Vic Gundotra, vice president of engineering at Google.

Google stressed that Buzz as it stands is very much a work in progress and there will be numerous upgrades and revisions based on user feedback. In particular Google Voice and Wave platforms could be added.

Invitations to join Buzz will be rolled out to all Gmail users over the next few days.