Microsoft on Google Buzz: Been there, done that
Summary: Google Buzz, which sounds like the slightly less confusing successor to Google's "future of e-mail" Wave product, is coming in both consumer and enterprise flavors, according to Google. Are the Softies quaking in their boots? Not exactly.
Google Buzz, which sounds like the slightly less confusing successor to Google's "future of e-mail" Wave product, is coming in both consumer and enterprise flavors, according to Google. Are the Softies quaking in their boots?
Not exactly. I asked Microsoft officials for comment on Google Buzz, which Google unveiled on February 9.
I received a response attributable to Dharmesh Mehta, Director of Product Management for Windows Live:
"Busy people don’t want another social network, what they want is the convenience of aggregation. We’ve done that. Hotmail customers have benefitted from Microsoft working with Flickr, Facebook, Twitter and 75 other partners since 2008."
(Not sure I'd call that statement a "slam," like TechCrunch did... Felt to me more like attempted buzzzzzzkill.)
Microsoft also has been working to integrate social networks from third parties not just into its Web-mail product, but also into its Outlook mail client, via the Outlook Social Connector that the company unveiled at the Professional Developers Conference in 2009.
Microsoft is integrating the Social Connector into the Outlook 2010 product which is due out in the first half of this year. Microsoft's Social Connector is designed to do a lot of what Buzz does, except with more of a business-centric focus.When Microsoft announced the Connector, there weren't major providers on board (like Facebook, Twitter, etc.), but company officials did say Windows Live integration, unsurprisingly, would be happening in 2010.
Microsoft's Social Connector also provides regularly updated "activity feeds" for those in a user's social connector via a connection with SharePoint 2010.
(My ZDNet blogging colleague Larry Dignan blogged today that Google's real target with Buzz was Microsoft SharePoint, not Twitter or FriendFeed. With the Social Connector front end taken into account, I wouldn't say he's far off the mark.)
In the longer term, Microsoft is working on infusing a lot of its products with more social networking capabilities. That's a key piece of the mission of the recently created FUSE Labs at Microsoft, headed by Lili Cheng. Cheng, as Microsoft watchers may recall, has been working on the Social Desktop concept for a few years now....
Is Google actually chasing Microsoft's taillights with Buzz -- despite the lack of mentions of competitive offerings from Redmond by the majority of the press/bloggers covering today's Buzz launch? What's your take?
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Talkback
You hit the nail on the head. "slightly less confusing successor to Wave"
everything to see what works best for online real-
time collaboration.
The difference
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703630404575053480962942848.html?mod=WSJ-business-whatsNews#articleTabs%3Darticle
Wave had a good start - but failed to keep moving . . .
As somebody who has a Wave account - it's useless unless [b]everybody[/b] uses it. Had to go back to email after I realized that nearly everybody I know weren't going to switch. That's what I get for being the techie in my family - I'm the only one who jumps on new stuff.
Without other people I know on it - it's pretty useless.
In addition, while it launched with a lot of features, it's slowed down to nearly a complete halt since then. New features are taking way too long to be added.
I'm thinking that they developed something way too large and complex to be changed easily. It's becoming a glacier, and is slowing to a crawl.
It's a buzz only to non-tech
Wave had a good start - but failed?
You also seem to misunderstand what Wave is. It isn't a feature rich service. It's a framework that developers can add to. It's like knocking Chrome when it launched its addon feature for not having enough addons coming out regularly from Google. Google provided the framework within Chrome for developers to create whatever they liked. Times passing and addons for Chrome are starting to take off.
Wave will be the same. It will take time, possibly a very long time, for Wave to really take off, if it's going to take off at all. It's up to developers whether they want to develop for Wave now and get in early or wait for it to gain enough traction before risking developing for it. None of this is in Googles hands.
Too long.
That's too long.
"You also seem to misunderstand what Wave is. It isn't a feature rich service. It's a framework that developers can add to. "
No - you seem to misunderstand what it is.
It's both.
If it's not meant to be used by end users, then there's no sense in developing for it.
"It's like knocking Chrome when it launched its addon feature for not having enough addons coming out regularly from Google."
Well, I thought it was a valid complaint. Now that Firefox is just as fast as Chrome, I'm throwing Chrome away.
"Wave will be the same."
Well, then I don't want it, and I won't want it when it comes out for real either.
Wave had a good start?
Microsoft: Been there and done with Windows as well.
dollars due to Microsoft Windows. I've contributed to Bill
Gates massive fortune, no more.
RE: Microsoft on Google Buzz: Been there, done that
I hope MS Improves SharePoint...It's Nasty
just can't seem to finish them properly. Maybe they need to
get some better designers. I don't know...something.
Uh...
Took a look at Buzz . . .
. . . and it's just a Facebook-like wall shoved into Gmail.
Don't really see the point.
RE: Microsoft on Google Buzz: Been there, done that