Will Google Buzz Kill Facebook?

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Google unveiled its social product Buzz today. It’s the search giant’s most daring foray into the social space yet. And it’s seeking to solve a big issue that tends to annoy users of Facebook. In the words of Todd Jackson, Gmail project manager, “It’s increasingly harder and harder to make sense and find the signal in the noise. When you have 500 or 5,000 friends it’s becoming very, very difficult. There’s real content in there, but also stuff like ‘Joe had a bagel for breakfast.’ ”

Buzz aims to do for social networking the same thing that Google did for search: make it more relevant by delivering content that you’re more likely to be interested in. Google wants people to do the bulk of their real-time sharing within Gmail, on a separate Buzz tab, which surfaces a feed of updates including links, photos, and videos. You can post your own content publicly or restrict certain posts to certain groups. A post on Google’s blog explains further:

If you think about it, there's always been a big social network underlying Gmail. Buzz brings this network to the surface by automatically setting you up to follow the people you email and chat with the most. We focused on building an easy-to-use sharing experience that richly integrates photos, videos and links, and makes it easy to share publicly or privately (so you don't have to use different tools to share with different audiences). Plus, Buzz integrates tightly with your existing Gmail inbox, so you're sure to see the stuff that matters most as it happens in real time.

While Buzz may be intriguing, it still will take a lot to lure Facebookers away from their profiles, their friend networks, photo albums, and addicting games. It may be especially difficult to get Facebook users who don’t have Gmail to both switch e-mail services and social networks to Buzz.