Google Meets Facebook

EARLIER TODAY GOOGLE INTRODUCED BUZZ to its popular email program Gmail. The new feature brings Facebook-like sharing of photos, videos, web links, status updates and conversations with other Gmail users.

Buzz was launched today by incorporating it into about 1% of the Gmail users and they expect to have the majority of Gmail subscribers installed by the end of this week.

While it will have a lot of similarities to Facebook programs, the only “friends” able to use Buzz are Gmail users. You won’t be able to bring in a “friend” from outside the Gmail universe. However, you will not be required to get permission to become “friends” because everybody with a Gmail address will automatically be capable of receiving your stuff.

There are some uncomfortable limitations, however. For one, you cannot attach a photo file from your hard drive. You can only attach links to images in either Google’s Picassa or Yahoo’s Flickr. A blatant attempt to drive you into using their photo storage sites. You will be able to import an image directly from a web page, however.

Same thing for video, only links to YouTube will bring up a video player for the recipient to view. Google claims they are doing this to keep file size way down and thus not clog up the “pipes” and slow the service. But Firegeezer suspects that it’s really a device to steer you into other pages where more advertising lurks.

Here is a demonstration video of the Buzz service: