Google Buzz Seeks Share of Social Web Crown with Facebook

by Clint Boulton

Get used to seeing this logo, complete with Google colors, in your Gmail inbox under the Inbox link in the Webmail app.

There is no setup! When Google turns Buzz on for a user, the user is automatically linked to his or her Google Profile, surfacing their picture. Moreover, their Gmail contacts with Google Profiles are automatically synced.

Posting to Buzz is a snap. Users simply write something in the status update box next to their Google Profile photo and hit post, opting to make it Public for Google’s real-time search engine, or private for only Gmail contacts to see.

Buzz will connect users to their Picasa Web albums, YouTube, Google Chat, Google Reader and Twitter if they choose to share. While Google Buzz may include Twitter tweets, Buzz will not be sent to Twitter.

Once we connected to Twitter, our last tweet surfaced on Buzz. Neat!

Share photo albums from Flickr on Buzz.

Meet new people via Buzz recommendations. Buzz recommends posts from people who users are not directly following. Not interested? Tell the Buzz app.

Using Google Buzz from a mobile phone can be just as great. Like Twitter, the “following” mode shows users Buzz from their Gmail contacts.

Switch from following view to nearby view, which surfaces other Buzz users in the area using the phone’s GPS technology.

Here is how to compose a buzz on your mobile device. Note at the bottom the Buzz app, leveraging the phone’s GPS, asks the user if he is at the Tartine Bakery.

The user confirms his location by clicking the button and the buzz is tagged with the user’s location.

You can search by voice on Android phones. Now post Buzz via your Android phone by speaking into it.

Buzz makes it easy for users to comment on other users’ Buzz.

A new Google Maps for Mobile layer for Google Buzz lets users sync Buzz to local and distant maps.