Fun with Buzz

Now, I'm not nearly as much of a Google fanboi as Owen Swart, but I'm a fanboi nonetheless. So I was unreasonably excited about the launch of Buzz, Google's latest social web product. I've played around with it a bit, and, essentially, it's Twitter + FriendFeed, nicely integrated into many of Google's products, and especially Gmail.  If you're not subscribed to my mini-blog (which, for the uninitiated, is a stream of links I share via Google Reader), I suggest having a look at my Buzz profile. If you have a Google Account (and you should anyway, if only for Gmail) you can "follow" me from there, which will then stream my blog posts and shared items straight into the Buzz section of your inbox. (I'm not quite sure how the mechanics work yet, but I think this is how it will go. Buzz is also supposed to PageRank items, so whether it filters stories from people you follow, or only 'recommends' extra items based on a ranking system, I don't know).

We'll have to wait and see whether Buzz takes off or not, but it certainly looks promising. My major concern at this point is duplication. Say you're (1) following me in Google Reader and (2) subscribed to my blog, and now, (3), decide to "follow" me in Buzz. When you scroll through my shared items in Reader, will you again have to do so in Buzz? What about vice versa? And what about my blog rss and Buzz? Will reading it in Buzz mark it as read in Reader?  I have seen that a "like" in Buzz transfers (a while later) to Reader, so hopefully Google have found a way of avoiding such annoying possible duplications.Anyway, enough off-topic fanboi ranting from me...

See also: Ten Pressing Questions about Google Buzz at PC Magazine, the Wikipedia entry on Buzz (which will quickly evolve into something useful and informative) and ReadWriteWeb on Buzz's missing features.