Science Addiction

When I last wrote about Buzz, I was cautiously optimistic.

I still am.

I continue to use it after four months, but not many other people do. Of the things that I noted that I did not like about Buzz, only #1 has been resolved. I live with the rest. A few thoughts on Google Buzz usage:

• Buzz has its own place in my social media landscape– I use it to share links with a known, finite set of people. My wife, my parents, and about 3 friends.
• Engagement is fairly high among this small group.
• The only distinguishing feature of this group is that they are all avid GMail users.
• The only reason I am able to sustain sharing on Buzz is because I am an avid GMail, and more importantly, Google Reader user.
• The role of Buzz is very different from Twitter, Facebook or others in my social media universe. On Twitter (and my blogs), I talk to the world and the world may or may not listen. On Facebook, I talk to my subset of the world, and the most random embers from my past glow in response. On Buzz, I send specific links curated for a specific set of people. I know who they are, and post links for them. It is so much more like email; no wonder it lives in GMail.
• I have 41 followers. I know almost all of them personally.
• I follow 48 people, but only a handful post anything regularly. Almost all the people who post regularly, do so because they share from Google Reader. Put another way, they would be sharing links on Reader even if Buzz did not exist.