Video: Google Buzz Adds Twitter Inside Gmail; Competes With Yammer, Chatter

February 9, 2010

Google Buzz is more useful for the enterprise, mobile setting

At a press conference this morning, Google unveiled yet another “real-time” Web initiative: Buzz.

To me, Buzz is nothing else but Twitter integrated to the Gmail user interface, and which gets status updates from your address book contacts.

But who really needs another Twitter-like? Especially after spending lots of time and efforts building, and perhaps monetising, a large number of “followers.”

So my guess is that Buzz will be interesting to try out (I just got mine activated on my Gmail account) but will certainly bore you quickly.

Google Buzz is Twitter for the enterprise, not the consumer

However, I can see how Buzz can be useful for the enterprise, a professional Twitter like Yammer or Saleforce.com’s Chatter.

No wonder Google quickly said it intends to add Buzz to its Google Apps enterprise offering. Something that Google never really talk about when it launches a consumer product.

Even co-founder Sergey Brin highlighted how Buzz improved his own productivity, accelerating the way he communicates with others inside Google.

So, more than a consumer product (who needs yet another Twitter/social network to worry about it), Google Buzz – like Yammer before it – could actually find success inside the enterprise, not outside.

Here’s what Google’s VP of product management Brad Horowitz has to say about Buzz in the enterprise:

And  Buzz’s demo by product manager Todd Jackson:


Google Chrome OS: Call Us Dumb Businessmen, Sergey Brin Says (video)

November 19, 2009

Google will not try to make money out of the Chrome OS operating system, its co-founder said

Is Google becoming more and more altruistic?

At the Google Chrome OS launch this morning, the search engine co-founder tried to convince the press corps attending the small gathering (just under 50 journalists and bloggers!) that Google is not trying to make money out of its upcoming operating system.

“Call us dumb businessmen. We really focus on user needs rather to strategies relative to other companies and things like that. And I think there is a real user need to be able to use computers easily. These netbooks are now $300-400… You can buy 5 to put around your house. But if you do it today there’s no way you can manage them. The overhead to manage the software will be way too high. We believe that the Web platform is a much simpler way, where the machines are essentially stateless or cache-like and still be performant. And still more easier for users to use,” explains Sergey Brin.

Chrome OS promises to be faster, more secure and easier to use than traditional operating systems like Linux (which the software is based on), Windows and even Mac OS!

However, the Google software which is readily available for download on the Chromium OS site, will not host any other “native” applications than Google’s own Chrome Web browser.

So for those, like me, with heavy photos and videos needs, Chrome OS will simply not fit the bill.

Google co-founder Sergey Brin explains it all in this video excerpt:


Follow

Get every new post delivered to your Inbox.

Join 31 other followers