Work From Home Toolkits: The Buzz About Google Buzz

It seems like the social media industry and the blogging community won’t be taking any rest this 2010. The blogosphere, the social networks, the microblogging services, the search engines and the social bookmarking sites are ready and pumped up to continue their battle for supremacy at the start of this decade. Most of these social media has influenced Internet marketing and has been used in running online businesses. They have been a significant part of our work from home especially in terms of traffic generation, sales and advertising. Today, as the year progresses, we get to see a lot of new websites, services and online resources that may continue to shape the world of Internet and technology.

Just a week ago, the search engine giant Google introduced its latest innovation and contribution to social media – the Google Buzz. Shortly after, it became the talk of the town and boy did it create a buzz? Google is now in the hot seat mainly because of criticisms, complaints and privacy issues that are being brought up to it by certain individuals or groups of people. However, before we get into those controversies, let’s take a look first at what Google Buzz is, how it works and what are its key features.

Google Buzz is described as both a messaging and social networking tool integrated into Gmail, Google’s web-based e-mail program. Some would say it’s like putting Facebook and Twitter features into Gmail. That means users are now able to share different kind of stuff from photos to videos to links, etc. They can post status messages and comments as well, just like what you can do in most social networking sites. There is also a mobile version of Google Buzz for those who are always on the go and would want to access their Gmail accounts through their phones and other mobile devices.

Some of the key features of Google Buzz that Internet users, including those people who work from home, may enjoy are auto-following, real-time sharing experience, inbox integration, excellent viewing of photos and watching of videos, the choice of sharing privately or publicly your posts, and others. In the mobile version, you can “geotag” your posts, which means that your current location or geographical information will be added to whatever you are posting – status messages, photos, etc. – after Google Buzz has confirmed where you exactly are. Google Maps is also integrated with the mobile version and that you can see what folks are buzzing near you through conversation bubbles over the map.

Although Google Buzz may look so fine and dandy and may become a potentially helpful tool for Internet marketers and folks who work from home, it has already been caught up in sticky situations and controversies in less than two weeks after its official launch. Most of this upset is due to the privacy issues surrounding Google’s new baby. Apparently, some people have expressed concerns about how Google Buzz threatens the privacy of Gmail users. A woman even filed a complaint. Privacy groups are keeping a close eye too and others look forward to investigating the whole thing. These privacy concerns have already prompted Google to make some changes in Buzz like the auto-follow feature, which was modified and became auto-suggest. The option to turn off Google Buzz or completely delete your Buzz profile has been made a lot easier and was one of the major changes as well.

Aside from those issues, Google also received some harsh criticisms from other huge Internet players namely Microsoft and Yahoo. Some people say that the service is just a rip-off of Facebook, Twitter and Foursquare, and shouldn’t be patronized. Other individuals describe it as lame and unnecessary. Nonetheless, despite all these that have happened in recent days, Google is still firm and continuing to roll out the Buzz feature in Gmail. How Google Buzz will fair off with the rest of the social media frenzy, it’s still too early to tell. But if it happens to be useful for our work from home, then why not?