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So they want to duplicate what Facebook does? Great for them, I suppose, but why would I as a user go to it? Any feature they add, FB can add. And FB already

So they want to duplicate what Facebook does? Great for them, I suppose, but why would I as a user go to it? Any feature they add, FB can add. And FB already has the graph I want.

adamhowell 17y ago
Before I left I was asked to work on several Facebook app competitors using OpenSocial -- supposedly because of "executive pressure" that was, then, based on the positive buzz around Facebook apps. I was disappointed to be so directly experiencing the Silicon Valley echo chamber. But, they've been wanting to use Gmail as the center of everyone's social network for awhile. I guess this is the first step.
araneae 17y ago
Well, they already have Google profiles. This Buzz thing just sounds like extra features on top of Google profiles. In fact, I posted on Facebook yesterday about how I was sick of it and did anyone want to join me on Google profiles. No one did, and mostly people hadn't heard of it. But I definitely see the appeal of attaching everything to my e-mail address. Also, a great deal of the appeal of Facebook, for me, is as an address book. But all the people I contact are in my GMail contacts list, and it's annoying to manually enter in things like their phone number or address. Now with Google profiles I won't have to look that stuff up on Facebook, because it should be in their Google profile.
- iron_ball 17y ago
  My Android phone automatically syncs contact information from Facebook, so it's not like Google isn't open to that. I understand that Google's right hand doesn't always know what the left is doing, though.
- jlees 17y ago
  Attaching everything to my email address would be great if I could just change my primary gmail username. I'm a bit fed up of it now. I have secondary accounts (which are painful enough to manage in the light of Buzz etc), but I don't want to lose access to 7 years of email and contacts either. The only solution I can think of is setting up a new address and a forwarder...
  - grinich 17y ago
    If you have a some patience, you can copy all of your mail through IMAP. You can also export your contacts and filters.
afterburner 17y ago
Easy: I don't want to check two things. I only want to check Gmail. I don't want to bother with Facebook, my online life is not Facebook-centric, it's Gmail-centric, and Facebook is merely a drag I occasionally put up with.
- mark_h 17y ago
  This, exactly. My only real concern is that my inbox could get drowned, but my cursory skim that would only be a danger if posted a lot yourself (and got a lot of replies). I wonder though if we're really that representative? It reminds me a bit of friendfeed which I loved, and no-one else I knew used.
  - afterburner 17y ago
    From the video it looks like it's a separate label, just under Inbox. I have several friends that similarly could not care less about Facebook, but more that actually do care. To be honest, even with great integration, it will still take a critical mass of people in social groupings to actually care. And not everyone I know uses Gmail as their primary email. Although most do (which is impressive).
    - mark_h 17y ago
      It's a separate label, but replies go to your inbox (from the video, again). Agreed on the need for a critical mass, but integrating with gmail suggests that it's a bit more of a serious push for them, as opposed to say wave which looks a bit more like a "wait and see" play. I need to read more about it; I'm still waiting for a federated set of protocols to get widespread adoption, a-la http://diso-project.org/ http://diso-project.org/ (I have a /lot/ of links collected of similar attempts :))
potatolicious 17y ago
They do somewhat more I think - from the brief demo video it looks like content embedding is performed much better - both in terms of UI and functionality. Also, Google's strengths in recommendation generation may make your "status stream" more relevant and interesting than Facebook's. Time will tell on this part.

So they want to duplicate what Facebook does? Great for them, I suppose, but why would I as a user go to it? Any feature they add, FB can add. And FB already has the graph I want.

adamhowell 17y ago

Before I left I was asked to work on several Facebook app competitors using OpenSocial -- supposedly because of "executive pressure" that was, then, based on the positive buzz around Facebook apps. I was disappointed to be so directly experiencing the Silicon Valley echo chamber. But, they've been wanting to use Gmail as the center of everyone's social network for awhile. I guess this is the first step.

araneae 17y ago

Well, they already have Google profiles. This Buzz thing just sounds like extra features on top of Google profiles. In fact, I posted on Facebook yesterday about how I was sick of it and did anyone want to join me on Google profiles. No one did, and mostly people hadn't heard of it. But I definitely see the appeal of attaching everything to my e-mail address. Also, a great deal of the appeal of Facebook, for me, is as an address book. But all the people I contact are in my GMail contacts list, and it's annoying to manually enter in things like their phone number or address. Now with Google profiles I won't have to look that stuff up on Facebook, because it should be in their Google profile.

iron_ball 17y ago
My Android phone automatically syncs contact information from Facebook, so it's not like Google isn't open to that. I understand that Google's right hand doesn't always know what the left is doing, though.
jlees 17y ago
Attaching everything to my email address would be great if I could just change my primary gmail username. I'm a bit fed up of it now. I have secondary accounts (which are painful enough to manage in the light of Buzz etc), but I don't want to lose access to 7 years of email and contacts either. The only solution I can think of is setting up a new address and a forwarder...
- grinich 17y ago
  If you have a some patience, you can copy all of your mail through IMAP. You can also export your contacts and filters.

afterburner 17y ago

Easy: I don't want to check two things. I only want to check Gmail. I don't want to bother with Facebook, my online life is not Facebook-centric, it's Gmail-centric, and Facebook is merely a drag I occasionally put up with.

mark_h 17y ago
This, exactly. My only real concern is that my inbox could get drowned, but my cursory skim that would only be a danger if posted a lot yourself (and got a lot of replies). I wonder though if we're really that representative? It reminds me a bit of friendfeed which I loved, and no-one else I knew used.
- afterburner 17y ago
  From the video it looks like it's a separate label, just under Inbox. I have several friends that similarly could not care less about Facebook, but more that actually do care. To be honest, even with great integration, it will still take a critical mass of people in social groupings to actually care. And not everyone I know uses Gmail as their primary email. Although most do (which is impressive).
  - mark_h 17y ago
    It's a separate label, but replies go to your inbox (from the video, again). Agreed on the need for a critical mass, but integrating with gmail suggests that it's a bit more of a serious push for them, as opposed to say wave which looks a bit more like a "wait and see" play. I need to read more about it; I'm still waiting for a federated set of protocols to get widespread adoption, a-la http://diso-project.org/ http://diso-project.org/ (I have a /lot/ of links collected of similar attempts :))

potatolicious 17y ago

They do somewhat more I think - from the brief demo video it looks like content embedding is performed much better - both in terms of UI and functionality. Also, Google's strengths in recommendation generation may make your "status stream" more relevant and interesting than Facebook's. Time will tell on this part.