I’m a big fan of Google Buzz and I’ve been vocal about it. The CEO of miio, Richard Lusk, is also a Google Buzz fan. I’m not alone in saying that I plan to shift some of my social networking time to miio.

I’m not going to attempt to reinvent the wheel. There’s an excellent review of miio in the blogosphere entitled, “Why miio isn’t Twitter or Facebook: And why this is a good thing.” The post contains a video demo and a terrific overview of the service. It’s recommended reading.

If you check out miio, add my profile to your network. It’s at http://miio.com/jon.

You might also enjoy:

--Google Buzz: Effects on the Blogosphere and Digital Media --Why Google Buzz is targeted at Twitter… not Facebook yet.

Readness like some other web apps relies on Facebook Friend Connect and for it work, you must permit it to:

I don’t write anything juicy on Facebook; in fact, I rarely contribute to Facebook. However, I don’t understand why I would authorize this Readness app to access my information, post on my wall or access my data at any time. I won’t turn this into a full blown Facebook rant (like I have in the past) but I won’t use the service until it disengages from the Facebook ecosystem or, at a minimum, allows me to use the service without handing them control over my Facebook account.

No related posts.

Try it out:

http://office.live.com/?docsf=1&wa=wsignin1.0

Discuss it on Buzz:

http://www.google.com/buzz/jonathan.mallin/bnN3Rwnjnn1/Anyone-with-opinions-on-the-new-Office-online

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• The Android Last.fm player will also play your own mp3s.
• Last.fm uses “Scrobbling” to build your custom radio stations. Many mp3 players can report to Last.fm the tunes you like.
• Unlimited skips. Can’t beat that! This is a big advantage over the free versions of Pandora and Slacker.
• Ability to completely ban a song from ever playing again.
• Ability to network with friends and share music interests. My Last.fm name is jonmallin. Feel free to send me a friend request.

This is where Last.fm can improve:

• Larger music library. While Last.fm does have a vast library of music, it does repeat some songs including some you may not want to hear again.
• Last.fm tends to overemphasize groups that are currently on tour. While this is a good way to monetize the app, it can be annoying.
• Better music preference prediction. Pandora uses the Music Genome Project which seems to predict my music tastes somewhat more accurately.

All in all, this Last.fm is my favorite personal radio player. Check it out at www.last.fm.

You might also enjoy:

--Switching from Pandora to Slacker (available for Blackberry, iPhone and Android)

While it is not yet deployed, the Salmon Protocol will use PubSubHubBub (which stands for something but I don’t know what). PubSubHubBub is used for, among other things, pushing out TechBottle’s RSS feed to Google on a real-time basis. My blog signals to Google that it has new content to syndicate. Google does not need to crawl my blog at predetermined intervals to check for new content.

So why is this a problem worth solving or worth reading about? The Salmon Protocol will unify conversations. We will be able to choose any platform we like but participate in a broader discussion with a wider circle of people. The internet will be more connected and less disjointed when the Salmon Protocol is deployed. It will be quite interesting.

For More Information: http://www.salmon-protocol.org/

[via Buzz via John Hardy's comment on my Buzz Question]

No related posts.

Wicked; Bad/Good, depending on your vernacular; Sweet; Awesome.  Pick your favorite superlative. You get the point.

Watch the video and do it in full screen mode. Crank it up to HD resolution if your bandwidth and monitor can support it.

Told ya so.

[via MobileWack]

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What’s FutureMidwest about?

It’s an event much like the popular SXSW that takes place in Austin, TX each year. FutureMidwest will feature tech presentations mixed in with networking opportunities, panel discussions, a demo pit, breakout sessions and workshops. The full agenda is available online.

Who’s speaking at FutureMidwest?

The keynote speaker is Detroit-native Jay Adelson, formerly CEO of Digg. Other speakers cover a wide range. Some are social media strategists from large publicly-held companies. Some are young entrepreneurs. If you have aspirations of making it big in the tech, the region’s largest players will be in attendance offering up sage advice. The full list of presenters  is available online.

Any impressive sponsors?

Yes, corporate sponsors are equally as impressive as the roster of presenters. Notable sponsors include: Read Write Web, Mashable, Verizon Wireless, GM, Ford, blip.tv and Yelp.

Ticket Information

Full registration covering the entire event is $100 for a student / $200 all others. Networking and entertainment Friday night only is $25. Corporate discounts are available. Proceeds benefit the Multiple Sclerosis Society. Tickets are available online.

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Blogging was once seen as a “look at me!” activity involving only the most self-absorbed people. I think that subset, like nearly the rest of world, has moved to Facebook. It’s definitely become the preferred platform for narcissists (but not all Facebookers are narcissists, of course). I considered blogging anonymously back in November and decided against it. I never intended to write anything controversial on Tech Bottle and I didn’t see a need to pretend to be someone else. Although I write under my own name, I blog for the reasons given below (not to draw extreme attention to myself) and I think they’re compelling reasons for people to consider writing a blog.

There are probably around 200 million blogs in the world covering virtually every topic imaginable. I chose technology as my primary theme but some people blog restaurant reviews, photography, travel, karate, knitting (5.6 million Google hits for “knitting blog”), etc.  Last year, I found myself renewing my interest in technology. I like tinkering with computers, mobile phones and other gadgets. Right out of the gate, I knew I’d have fun playing with WordPress and creating the infrastructure for a blog. I’m frequently tinkering with the blog. Also, I found myself talking people’s ears off  in “real life” about technology. I was more interested in these topics than some of the people with whom I associate. I decided to blog to find other people with similar interests (geeks, I suppose) and share my thoughts. I also “mashup” or repost items that I find interesting from other sources with attribution. Between the various social networks, primarily Twitter and Buzz, I have been able to meet people throughout the blogosphere who also share some of my interests. I discovered new blogs to read and we don’t talk each other’s ears off. Blogs are entirely on-demand; you can tune into things that interest you and tune out to things that don’t. The blogosphere is something like the world’s largest newspaper with every blogger serving as his or her own editor-in-chief.

Blogging is a good recession activity. WordPress (start at WordPress.org, not WordPress.com) and other blogging platforms are completely free. Domain names and hosting are cheap. If you’re willing to allocate a little bit of space to advertisers (Google AdSense is pretty easy to set up), you’ll come out ahead even with a modest following. In my first few months of blogging, I’ve covered my annual expenses.

I’ve enjoyed blogging more than I thought I would. If you’re passionate about something or willing to become passionate about something, you’ll likely enjoy blogging too.

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--TechBottle Blog Milestone: 25,000 Visits --If you have a website or blog, Get Clicky [Plug] --2009 Blog Stats for Tech Bottle & 2010 Goals

Here’s a new trick that hasn’t been blogged yet! Google’s url shortener at goo.gl can generate QR codes (which are 2D barcodes) just by appending “.qr” after the goo.gl url. So the url http://goo.gl/727X does a redirect to http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/ and the url http://goo.gl/727X.qr will generate a QR code that also goes to http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/ . Pretty cool, huh? Please share this trick widely. :)

If you are unfamiliar with QR Codes, you can read my primer entitled “Blackberry Messenger Code ‘Decoded’: QR Code Explained and Free Generator.”

The easiest way to use the goo.gl URL shortner is to install Chrome MUSE in Google’s Chrome browser.

This is an example of a QR Code, one that would take the scanning device to the @techbottle twitter page:

@techbottle on twitter

[via Google Buzz]

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He also has an entertaining blog.

[via UrlEsque]

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David Drummond, Google’s Chief Legal Officer and SVP of Corporate, posted to Google’s official blog this afternoon. The post is entitled, “A new approach to China: an update.” It basically states, in an artfully drafted diplomatic fashion, exactly what I wrote in the first paragraph of this post.

Mike Elgan posted on ITWorld.Com at 4 pm reason why this is a total slap in the face to China. He writes:

It leaves the Chinese government with three options:

1. Block mainland access to Hong Kong, which exacerbates frustration with Hong Kong’s special status and creates resentment on the mainland

2. Shut down the Hong Kong site, which creates resentment among powerful elites in Hong Kong

3. Allow Chinese citizens access to an uncensored Internet

None of these options are acceptable to the Chinese government.

A couple of hours later, China responded to Google’s crafty redirect. Again, Mike Elgan was on the story. The quotes from Chinese officials are as follows:

Google’s move is “totally wrong,” said a government spokesman, described as the “official in charge of the Internet bureau under the State Council Information Office” through the official Chinese news agency Xinhua. Further, he said, “Google has violated its written promise it made when entering the Chinese market by stopping filtering its searching service and blaming China in insinuation for alleged hacker attacks.”

The spokesman said: “This is totally wrong. We’re uncompromisingly opposed to the politicization of commercial issues, and express our discontent and indignation to Google for its unreasonable accusations and conducts.”

This in a year where the Internet is nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize! :)

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Leftos is broken down into six main categories: Single, Dating, Sex, Relationships, Marriage and Divorce. While the entire love spectrum is covered, the demographic appears to be primarily college students and recent graduates. This may seem like a turnoff if you’re outside of that demographic but users can follow one another (think Twitter) and create an experience to their liking.

The interface was recently redesigned and offers many improvements over the prior version. What I like most is the main global news feed which can show either the most recent comments or the highest rated comments. If you frequent the site, the most recent comments feed will keep you coming back; if you’re new to Leftos, the highest rated comments are a good place to start.

Overall, I think Leftos has the potential to serve a niche market but it needs to grow its number of active users. Perhaps a piece in a significant publication would really drive traffic. The infrastructure is terrific (better than anything remotely similar) and it has been designed, programmed and promoted exclusively by a team of three 20-somethings. If you are curious, you can check it out at http://www.leftos.com/ or follow @Leftos on Twitter for some of the most entertaining headlines.

No related posts.

FUNNY! Click to Enlarge

Google unveiled its latest lab today, Google Play (http://www.google.com/reader/play/), a magazine-style RSS reader. It shows thumbnails along the bottom edge and the viewing window enlarges images and makes them more prominent. A slideshow mode also makes Play dissimilar from Google Reader. Play includes the ability to “like” an item, share an item and star an item for later viewing.

The recipe for Play seems to be two parts Google Reader, one part Google Fast Flip and one part StumbleUpon.

A touchscreen device would be the ideal platform for Play; readers could simply flick ahead to the next snippet. Perhaps this product was developed primarily for the upcoming touchscreen tablets.

I found the funny image [points up and to the right] using Play. One of the people I follow on Google Buzz shared it.

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65 Google buzzers replied with comments. I commented: “Microsoft is pushing Bing prematurely. Wired ran a very good article about Google which, among other things, compared the accuracy of results between Google and Bing. Bing was pathetic.”  The Wired article is entitled, “Exclusive: How Google’s Algorithm Rules the Web.” In that article, Google’s accuracy is compared with Microsoft Bing’s.

I have no doubt that Google will dominate internet search, perhaps in perpetuity, but this has less to do with the algorithm Google uses than the Wired title suggests. Google is womping the competitors because it has something they don’t… better data and a steady flow of it.  When I say better data, I don’t mean that Google knows about web pages that other search engines don’t (although it’s quite possible). Google search is the smartest around because it has a phenomenal algorithm, no doubt, but also because it has been collecting data generated by humans (clicks) for a very long time. Between the data and the algorithm, Google can predict what content you want to view. In a sense, Google search is the high watermark for artificial intelligence. It can predict human behavior based on a person typing a word or two.

According to the Inside Google special on CNBC, Google saves everything typed into Google indefinitely. Your own search results are identified with your Google account and IP address for a period of 18 months and then anonymized. This information makes Google smarter. Now, a full 20% of Google searches are actually tailored to you and differ from Joe Schmoe’s search results.

Enter Bing.  Bing is an outgrowth of MSN Search.  MSN Search was never a dominant player in the search business. AltaVista, Yahoo and others were Google’s chief competitors. In the early days, search was dominated by who had the biggest map of the internet which was a function of the “spidering” software.  Another factor was the algorithm used to produce results. Google won the search war but it did it by being innovative and leveraging data. It learned if you clicked the what you were looking for and didn’t return to Google for another X seconds.

Microsoft is trying to play catch up. It needs to brand Bing but it also needs Bing to accurately predict what you want to click. How can it accomplish this when Google has virtually monopolized the search market? Maybe spending $2.0B in the UK will bring in $2.0B+ worth of data (clicks). Then again, maybe it won’t.  It will be difficult to leverage this localized data because Google will generate more and arguably better data in the same period of time globally. It’s data where Google excels; even if Bing had precisely the same algorithm and the same map of the web, it would lose the search war on data alone.

Bing’s strategy seems somewhat outside of the box. Colorful graphics and promotions seem to be in Bing’s playbook. These seem like mere window dressing to me. When it comes to getting accurate results, Google wins. It knows what I want to click. Will Bing ever be smart enough to be a viable alternative? I’m not sure but spending $2.0B in advertising off in the U.K. won’t propel it ahead of Google.

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--Motorola Droid Wacked Out Advertising

Friday I was complaining about the previous method for checking POP accounts to a friend who hasn’t yet become a Gmail convert. The 1 hour POP times were driving me nuts and the manual POP checks were cumbersome. This new Lab is a dandy.  Anyone who uses Gmail to POP mail from other accounts should activate this.

[Official Gmail Blog]

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The New Dork ~ The Entrepreneur State of Mind.

And if you missed the Black Eyed Peas Now Generation, here it is:

[via Mashable]

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Glide Engage

Glide Engage v. 1.0 is a free app for the Storm, Tour and Bold 9700 (as well as an Android flavor). It is intended to operate somewhat like Twitter but with a much higher character limit and the ability to post multimedia (a la Google Buzz). Frankly, I wasn’t interested at all in the “engage” element of the app. Instead, I noticed that you can browse the 30 free gigs of cloud storage they give each user that I wrote about four days ago. This is nifty…

…but you can’t seem to do anything with your files through the Blackberry. I thought I’d be able to download, attach, delete and rename files. Nope. You can view thumbnails of the documents that are too small to be legible on the Blackberry screen. Maybe someone can figure this out and comment on this blog post because I’m really curious why these features aren’t baked into the app. I assume that they’re in development.

To create a Glide account and claim your 30 free gigs of cloud storage, visit http://glideos.com/. To download the free Blackberry app, point your Blackberry’s browser to http://glideos.com/download/glideengage.jad.

GrooveShark Mobile

GrooveShark mobile requires a premium GrooveShark account ($3/month, discussed below) and allows Blackberries to tap into GrooveShark’s music library and a user’s own cloud-hosted music library. It streams the music with high sound quality and creating playlists is a breeze. (I’m listening to Roger Waters’ Radio Waves as I type this.) You can also create your playlists on the computer and launch them with the app. Also, this app, like the desktop web version I wrote about yesterday, allows you to play a “Radio” mode similar to the Pandora and Slacker apps. GrooveShark mobile allows unlimited skips.

The GrooveShark mobile app is well designed and easy to use. It is much more polished than the Glide Engage app.  Where I think GrooveShark is going wrong is the “pay $3/month to play music you already own” model. Frankly, most Blackberry owners can accommodate their music libraries on their MicroSD cards and preserve battery life by not streaming data.  For this app to take off, I think GrooveShark should follow the UberTwitter and IM+ app model and have visual advertisements in the app and drop the monthly charge.

To get started with GrooveShark, visit http://grooveshark.com.

Closing Remarks

These apps have the potential to be really cool. Even without the apps, I recommend both services even if you only intend to use them on the computer. If you have any opinions on the Glide Engage or GrooveShark apps, leave a comment. I’ll see if I can get the developers’ attention.

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Click to visit GrooveShark.Com

GrooveShark is a cloud-based music service that works in two different ways. First, you can use it like a custom radio similar to Pandora and Slacker but with unlimited skips (yes, even in the free version). Second, you can upload your MP3s and maintain a cloud library of music that you can stream from any browser. There is a paid version of GrooveShark that eliminates visual ads on the web interface and includes apps for streaming your tunes to your smartphone.

There does not appear to be a quota on the size of a user’s library but I found the upload process which is entirely Java based to be very, very slow. (The uploader estimates my remaining 956 songs will take about 7 hours and 20 minutes to upload. Yikes!) If you choose to upload a song already in the collective GrooveShark library, it will appear in your personal library without actually uploading it. Also, uploaded songs augment the collective GrooveShark library.

Wikipedia speaks to copyright issues surrounding GrooveShark and points out that the EULA does not indemnify users from copyright violations. Nonetheless, many people feel comfortable using the service which streams 50 to 60 million songs per month and was growing at a rate of 2% to 3% per day as of April 2009.

Sound quality is very good over a cable internet connection. Not that I’m an audiophile but I couldn’t distinguish my streamed music from the original MP3s even on good speakers.

Although having cloud-hosted music is convenient, I wouldn’t use it as a substitute for a backup because music stored on GrooveShark can be streamed only, not downloaded. If you want to backup your music to a cloud, I recommend using Glide which offers 30 GB of free storage and can sync your music folders regularly. Files stored on Glide can be downloaded later.

[via Gerben van Erkelens on Google Buzz]

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Click to visit www.glideos.com

Transmedia Corporation’s “Glide OS 4.0″ is an advertising-free, cloud-based operating system. You can access it through any web browser (including mobile browsers) and through a proprietary desktop app (Windows/Linux and OS X flavors). It has all the bells and whistles of Google’s free cloud services (calendar, email, documents, spreadsheets, etc.) and some other services not offered by Google:

• 30 GB of free online storage in the “GDrive” and a desktop app to automatically sync directories on your computer and in the cloud.
• The best web-based image editor I have seen. While it’s not exactly PhotoShop or GIMP quality, it will do the trick for basic use.
• An online version of PowerPoint called “Presenter.”
• It’s very customizable, e.g. you can set wallpaper and other custom options.

Frankly, I’m not doing justice to the scope of offerings available in Glide OS 4.0.  It’s truly a complete operating system that is remotely hosted. Glide OS 4.0 has been favorably reviewed by InformationWeek, PC World, CNET, eWeek and PC Magazine. Walter Mossberg of the Wall Street Journal and David Pogue of the New York Times both wrote rave reviews about it.

A cloud-based  solution like Glide might be particularly appealing to those running Chrome OS on their netbooks (including the Flow variety I wrote about). Currently, there is nothing comparable though Office 2010 is supposed to have a cloud based version. As noted in many of the reviews of Glide, Microsoft is playing catch up with Transmedia’s free offerings. Glide OS 4.0 is completely free for up to 30 GB of storage. This would be more than sufficient for most and I intend to use it for my online backups. A 250 GB account runs $50 per year.

Check it out at http://glideos.com/.

[Thanks Brian]

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I was a Google Analytics fan until I was introduced to Clicky. I use the free version on this blog and my professional blog and I’ve found it to be valuable in analyzing web traffic. The setup is easy. The interface is intuitive. Additionally, it offers many advantages over Google Analytics, including:

• Twitter analytics
• Dedicated iPhone and mobile version
• Alerts
• “Juicy details” about every single user, including reports about every click
• Visitor organizations, hostnames, IP addresses — the works.

A full chart comparing Get Clicky to the competition is available at: http://getclicky.com/ It’s roster of clients include the Boy Genius Report, Mashable and Smashing Magazine. And, it’s worth noting that you don’t have to forfeit Google Analytics to use Clicky. One site can run both tracking codes.

Check it out if you want to know more about your website or blog traffic. http://getclicky.com/

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Chat Roulette is aptly named. Users fire up webcams and click through other users (literally clicking “Next” about once per second) until they find someone with whom they would like to communicate. The user-base spans the globe and at all hours there are people online clicking through images looking for the net “hit” of Chat Roulette. Users can type or speak their dialogues, some of which are made difficult by language barriers.

Chat Roulette has become a venue for exhibitionist sex acts and drug use. (I’m curious if the 17 year old expected this when he launched the site. There is a button to report indecent acts but I expect that it is clicked infrequently and ends up in ignored in /dev/null.) So, if a very brief glimpse of something indecent is going to ruin your day, avoid Chat Roulette.

Despite exhibitionist/voyeuristic tendencies of some users, it seems that the vast majority of users seem to be interested in just having a good laugh. I’ve seen puppet shows, magic tricks, costumes, parties and people just looking for a cure to common boredom.

If you’re curious and you’re willing to smile for the webcam (and risk ending up on YouTube too because a number of videos seem to be appearing), visit http://chatroulette.com/ or http://chatrt.com/. It’s the 24 hour, 7 days a week, live circus of the internet.

P.S. Apparently it is easy to piss someone off on Chat Roulette without actually doing anything. If someone sticks their middle finger up at you on Chat Roulette, just do it back and click next.

P.P.S. This 17 year old is going to make a ton of money once the site displays paid advertisements.

UPDATE: From Chat Roulette’s website, “We are currently replacing servers. You may experience slight issues with connection. All perfomance problems will be fixed in 20 hours.”

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What do I mean by “succeed”?  I mean that Google Buzz becomes a useful repository for information sharing that is frequented by many for news, opinions and sometimes everyday chatter.

Google Buzz Differs from Existing Social Networks

If Google Buzz succeeds, then a relentless flow of information will come into Google Buzz making it very sticky. This is very unlike Twitter, which I contend is not a very sticky site at all. Almost all tweets, other than casual banter, have outbound links. This has created a cottage industry in URL shortening. Tweets are essentially headlines that direct people away from Twitter into a different realm, often the blogosphere. While Google Buzz could be used to drive traffic into a different realm, it is much more sticky for a few reasons. First, there’s no character limit on Buzzes. Google Buzz could be a substitute for blogs, particularly simple ones like the Posterous blogs. (This is a topic I mused about before: “Google Buzz could become a Substitute for Blogs if…”). Second, there’s absolutely no start-up cost and it is easy to begin buzzing. You can login and can begin almost immediately. You don’t have to mess with customizing WordPress. Third, unlike Twitter (and Facebook to some extent), Google Buzz has very good support for images and video. Rich content buzzes are quite common. With Twitter, you needed an outbound link to see any rich content at all with the exception of user avatars. Fourth, Google Buzz has a good commenting system (which is likely to be improved) and discussions are easy to follow, unlike Twitter. With Twitter, even if you read a post on a blog and decide to comment, most likely you would do so on the blog and not via Twitter. Google Buzz, on the other hand, is self-contained and comprehensive.

Google Buzz is designed to draw people away from other sites and into Buzz. It’s baked into Gmail which many millions of people use daily. Google’s popular RSS reader also draws people into Google Buzz through prominent links in Reader. Google made apps for phones and cooked in a location sharing sharing feature via Google Maps (a la FourSquare). Picasa is wired into Google Buzz. Every buzz has an email link at the bottom for sharing it. This draws people into Google Buzz, not away from it. In other words, Google Buzz is well integrated with other properties in the Google ecosystem.

If Google Buzz Succeeds and it’s as “Sticky” as I say, then…

First, traffic to blogs will go down as Google Buzz becomes a substitute for blogging. As long as people can locate people with similar interests (and I’m sure there are third party sites mimicking “WeFollow” as I type and Google may roll something out too), affinity groups can stick with Google Buzz. Second, with rebuzzing, sharing via Google Reader and upcoming integration with Google News, sites that simply aggregate news will be irrelevant and unprofitable. Third, if aggregators are “buzzed out,” then what about the fate of publications like Mashable/TechCrunch or old media like the local newspaper? I predict that they will publish more original content  and less “mash-ups” or aggregated content. Further, they will be leery of  publishing their content to Google Buzz. Instead, they will try to stick to the Twitter model and drive people with outbound links to their websites to generate advertising revenue. Already, we’re seeing Mashable which boasts 2.3 million followers post outbound links as opposed to publishing directly into Google Buzz. This model could succeed if the original content is attractive enough to draw people away from Google Buzz to read it and the person chooses the outbound link over Google Reader.

How does Facebook fit into the picture? Surprise: Facebook wants to become what Google Buzz already is.

If Google Buzz does succeed and the blogosphere contracts, particularly the amateur blogosphere, it will do so where Twitter and Facebook have failed. As I already discussed, Twitter’s model was to aggregate headlines but it has not produced a sticky site. Facebook is a very sticky site but not for the same reasons Google Buzz will become a very sticky site.  Facebook is sticky because people want to share their life’s experience with people they know and/or read about friends and family.  Major media outlets and significant blogs have not yet gotten much traction on Facebook. People don’t want to pollute their stream of friends’ news with other content (like the backlash against Zynga’s games publishing into streams). Accordingly, I believe Google Buzz is very unlike Facebook… and in a useful sort of way. While theoretically Google Buzz could be used like Facebook, it is better suited as a sticky news and opinion social network of sorts. This is one of Facebook’s goals but Google actually has a significant head start because of its integration with other Google properties. This runs absolutely counter to what you read elsewhere that Google Buzz is a startup challenging a 400 million strong Facebook. I contend that Google is today buzzing with what Facebook wants to become. (Perhaps I just answered the question of whether Facebook and Google Buzz can coexist. Yes, Facebook for friends and family and Google Buzz for news-worthy content and opinions.)

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[via Alden Torres on Google Buzz]

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If you haven’t watched the video, I’ll sum it up. Google’s core strength is the search business. Google wants to be branded indelibly as the map for the internet. (It didn’t pick the Parisian Love Superbowl advertisement by accident.) Up until now, Google crawled the web to map it. The map was periodically (but not continually) updated. Some sites refreshed daily, some hourly and some nearly instantaneously. Now, more and more, consumers are looking for instantaneous news and communication. Google Buzz was created primarily to bring content to Google instead of the present model of crawling the wires to update Google’s map of the web.

The Twitter Argument

If you want breaking news, you can find it on Twitter and find it faster than anywhere else because all major news outlets bring content to Twitter. Twitter is the king of real-time news. Twitter doesn’t crawl for anything. Google got very lucky recently when it inked a non-exclusive deal to index Twitter. (Microsoft did too.) Although little is known about the contract, the rumor is that Twitter received a combined $25 million for the indexing deals (which, in turn, put Twitter in the black for 2009). This is a threat to Google for a variety of reasons. First, the contract may not be renewed or could go exclusively to Microsoft in the future. Also, the entire Twitter company could fall into unfriendly hands. Google does not like relying on any company that may not commit itself to “openness.” Second, Google probably paid more for the Twitter contract than it cost Google to build its own Twitter-like service, Google Buzz. Third, Google Buzz is virtually guaranteed to be more successful than Twitter due to the tie-in with Gmail which has an installed active user-base of approximately 174 million regular users.

Why Facebook Isn’t a Serious Threat Yet

Facebook has yet to challenge Google’s model of mapping the web. While you can do rudimentary web searches through Facebook, nobody does. Facebook is not populated with the same real-time news content as Twitter. This trend is shifting with the growing number of fan pages and professional accounts but up until now Facebook was simply a place to crack a joke to a large crowd, post pictures of kids or invite people to a party.

HOWEVER, Facebook could easily become a serious threat. It is among the most sticky of all websites. It has an installed user-base of over 400 million users. If it made a serious push to have meaningful content come to Facebook (news outlets, blogs, etc.), it could challenge Google’s efforts to be the best map of the internet perpetually.

Predictions

Twitter will get wiped off the map by Google Buzz. It may continue to exist in a MySpace-like state. Some lesser player could buy it or it might have a weak IPO. The real fight will be Google vs. Facebook but that’s on the horizon and will only occur if Facebook makes a meaningful effort to map the web. The scariest scenario for Google would be Microsoft and Facebook uniting forces. Bing plus Facebook could mount a meaningful long-term challenge to Google. Keep in mind that Microsoft already has a small piece of Facebook. So, Google isn’t simply looking for a piece of the social networking business. It is also playing defense to keep its dominance in mapping the world’s information.

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This is another bold move by Google to dominate the interwebs. Gmail already has an enormous installed user-base (around 150 million users; compare with Facebook which has around 400 million users) and integration with GTalk and AOL’s AIM. Even if the status update feature fails to gain acceptance, at a bare minimum, Google captures more mindshare and could draw some more users into Gmail. In a recent Mashable poll, Gmail trouced Microsoft’s Outlook as a preferred email client (70% to 19% with 11% voting no preference). (Candidly, I reacquainted myself with Gmail after reading the poll and ultimately decided to consolidate my email into Gmail instead of Outlook or Mozilla’s Thunderbird.)

If Google’s status update gains widespread acceptance, then the obvious losers are Facebook and Twitter. The timing couldn’t be more damaging to Facebook, which is expected to have an IPO this year. The status update war of 2010 is brewing, as the Scobelizer post I referred readers to the other day suggested. Perhaps Facebook drew first blood by making its “search” feature more prominent on the redesigned Facebook interface. Google fired back with a largely unexpected Superbowl advertisement that touts its search engine and, now, will go head-to-head with Facebook.

A less obvious loser is Mozilla which is expected to roll out Raindrop soon, a program that integrates social networking, email and instant messaging. Gmail will perform the same functions, it is entirely web-based and it has an enormous installed user-base.

The status update feature also suggests to me that Google Wave will have a more business-centric focus and will not be intended for casual banter amongst friends. Initially, Google Wave was pegged as Google’s answer to Twitter but many users found it difficult to use and invitations to Google Wave’s preview were limited.

Mashable questions whether Gmail will have an option to also publish a status update to Facebook and/or Twitter. While this option is within the realm of possibilities, I believe it is unlikely that Google will implement it. Facebook draws significant advertising revenue away from Google. If Google were to feed the Facebook frenzy, then it would be making a big mistake.  Things might get interesting with the GOOG this year… they said social features were in the works and it looks like they’re delivering, soon.

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