Google Buzz: What it has for users

The world's No. 1 search engine Google has rolled out another app that will expand its Web presence. Called Google Buzz, the feature will pit it against social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter. Google Buzz will allow users to quickly share messages, Web links and photos with friends within its popular email service Gmail.

Google Buzz comes after the company's several not-so-successful attempts to strengthen its position in the hotly-contested social networking space.
Here's looking into what all Google Buzz will do for users
 
Comes within Gmail
 
As soon as Google Buzz service becomes active in a user's Gmail account, they can find a tab for Buzz below their inbox. On clicking the tab, users can read status updates, photos and video. Buzz updates will also show up directly in user's inbox as well as in a tab within Gmail.

According to Buzz product manager Todd Jackson, "You can open an item to comment directly because it’s a “live object with an open connection to the server that gets updates in all time.”
 
Friends list goes automatic
 
According to Google, 40 people whom users talk to through Gmail and Gchat will be automatically added as friends.
Buzz uses information from the existing email accounts of users to automatically show updates and media from people they talk to regularly. However, it will also allow users to share information privately if they want.
 
Finds your status
 
Status messages that users publish on Google Buzz and flag as viewable to everyone will be automatically indexed by Google's search engine and be available within Google's recently launched real-time search results.
Google said users can also keep messages private by sharing only with customized groups of friends and colleagues.
 
Is Twitter, Facebook and more…


Like other social services, Buzz allows users to post status updates that include text; photos from services like Google’s Picasa and Yahoo’s Flickr; videos from YouTube; and messages from Twitter. Analysts say many of its features mimic those of Facebook.
This means Buzz will eliminate the need for people to visit sites like Twitter to post updates or see those sent by people they have selected to follow.

According to Jackson, Buzz goes beyond status updates by letting people "pull in" images, video or other data from websites including Picasa, Flickr, Twitter and Google Reader.

Google Buzz will also pull in updates from outside your immediate group, such as an active conversation involving some friends and some people you aren't following. However, though users can view Twitter messages within Buzz, they will not be able to publish new messages to Twitter's service.
 
Can work on mobiles too

 

Buzz is also tailored to work on smartphones. Buzz will be available on mobile devices including Apple Inc’s iPhone and those that run on Google’s Android software. The programme automatically includes contacts that a user frequently emails

 

 

Can locate users

 

Google also introduced an updated version of its Mobile Maps, which can show the location of people posting items on Buzz. The location feature also finds businesses and other locales to help users identify where they are.

How Google tablet may look like

Apple's iPad may soon have competition. As iPad commanded the technology world's attention, Google continued working quietly on tablet computer software that could run rivals to Apple's latest creation.

Pictures of what a Google tablet might look like were featured at a Chromium developers web page this week along with talk of how touchscreen controls could work based on the Internet titan's Chrome computer operating system.

Shots highlight UI

The images were posted online two days before the January 27 event at which Apple unveiled an iPad tablet computer that will begin shipping worldwide in March.


The page is primarily comprises shots highlighting the user interface (UI) of a tablet PC. It includes such possibilities as, "keyboard interaction with the screen: anchored, split, attached to focus," "contextual actions triggered via dwell," and "zooming UI for multiple tabs."
 
Touch interface
 

You may have seen our Chrome OS tablet concepts from last Monday; in the video, some floating hands interact with a touch surface," Google Chrome lead designer Glen Murphy wrote in a personal blog post
"We only used one hand image instead of showing the full range of gestures, but I did make a larger set."


Gesture control capabilities
 
Google made images and video of Google tablet gesture control capabilities available online for developers to consider.
The "concept user interface under development" could signal another front on which Google will battle with Apple, which uses its own custom software in the iPad, iPhone, iPod, and Macintosh computers.
 
Netbooks only?


According to the Chromium form factors site, "While its primary focus is Netbooks, Chrome OS could eventually scale to a wide variety of devices. Each would have vastly different input methods, available screen space, and processing power." Chromium is the name of the open-source developer project that underlies the branded Chrome product.
The website focused on Chrome OS software and did not indicate whether Google would make its own tablet or opt to let others tend to the hardware.
 
Target date
 
Google's mobile Android software is built into iPhone competitors, including the Internet firm's own Nexus One smartphone released in January.


The target date for Chrome OS hardware is Q4 2010.
 
Tablet, tablets... are buyers listening?
 
IT companies have been trying to make tablets for years, with little success. Apple hopes its design will change that with its iPad selling from $499 to $829.


Recently-held CES saw unveiling of a flurry of tablets from computing companies of all hues. While Microsoft tied up with HP to luanch a Tablet PC, others joining the tablet fray include Dell, Asus, MSI and Sony.