Well according to our online survey, most people don’t think that Google Buzz will be the next craze in social media.  Perhaps it is a bit behind the development curve when it comes to social media. People already have their Facebook account, LinkedIn profile, MySpace and are Twittering away until their hearts are content… so what are they going to gain by using Buzz?  And, most importantly do they want yet another social media tool?

The first step that Google made, was to launch Buzz within an already existing platform – Gmail.  Clever, because if it had been stand alone I don’t think people would have the inclination to use it. For many reasons, but probably most important is it would have been yet another application to open and manage… why bother.

The second advantage was to use the power of Gmail to help users use Buzz.  All those email addresses that have been stored – business associates, contacts, friends, acquaintances, family etc.

The autofollowing feature that was supposed to help Buzz users find other users to follow, has caused a few privacy issues. But now that it has been tweaked to allow users a bit more control of who sees their Gmail mailing list, it will give people more confidence.

Will Google Buzz take off and be a success?  I think this really depends on how much people will continue to use the shortened Twitter-like version of communicating.

Buzz has some advantages to users, but I don’t see any clear differentials that will make it stand out from the pack.

Have you tried Google Buzz yet and do you think it will be the new craze in social media circles?  On Tuesday Google launched their answer to the Social Networking craze.  Google have cleverly piggybacked off the successful platform of Gmail.  Keep a look out for the new Buzz button on your Gmail profile, that looks something like this:

Google’s strategy is based around people struggling to manage their social media accounts and deal with the overload of information.  Buzz will open up new functionality within Gmail and at the same time Buzz can make use of Gmail’s very strong email functions to send short messages and photos to friends, also to manage them.  One can make use of all the email addresses stored in Gmail, to make your social networking that much easier.

You can also use your phone to connect with Buzz using the smartphone applications and with Google Maps.  Its going to be interesting to see if Buzz can eat into some of the Facebook & Twitter market share.  Using the already established Gmail base will give them critical mass and being able to connect with the diiferent Google specific applications, may give Google an advantage.