I Welcome Our Google Overlords
I just received Buzz today, and I must say, I’m most impressed how Google has learned from the botched Wave beta by just shipping this tacked onto their already existing, pre-populated social system. Millions of people are already on GMail and integrating this into it is a brilliant move.
At the same time, I don’t see why this is super exciting. It’s Twitter, but tied into Google. It’s literally just another system I’m going to hook my other web 2.0 sites into and get comments from friends. In some ways, it feels really phoned in by a company, that honestly, I expect better from. They combined their reader service and their chat IM client and called it a new invention. At least they were smart enough to realize that people already have external services for stuff and it’s best to just play nice and import them.
On a side note: I’m slightly unamused that no one seems upset that they just added this. Maybe it’s because I’m a bitter Microsoft employee, but seriously? If MS tried this anywhere, people would be going ape shit. But because Google is doing it, and it’s internet related, it must be ok. Seriously, trying to circumvent a competitor by putting your competing widget in an already overpowering product…why does that sound familiar? Am I the only one beginning to think that Google is becoming a little too big? When do you flip the Megacorp-Is-Evil bit? Just some thoughts on the subject.
