Google Buzz

After many attempts, Google may finally be cracking social media with the launch of Google Buzz - their social integration tool within Gmail.

Buzz takes advantage of the 170m regular Gmail users and allows many Facebook and Twitter style features such as mobile phone access, the ability to 'follow' people and to be able to 'like' comments - and also uses other technology Google have invested in significantly (often by acquisition) such as global positioning.

Of the launch, the BBC's Rory Cellan-Jones said:

"They've launched Buzz with plenty of interesting new features, particularly for mobile users, but the real question is whether there's enough to entice social networkers away from sites like Facebook and Twitter."

It will be interesting to see if Google can crack social media this time, after the relative failure - although it's still popular in Brazil and India - of Orkut and Google Wave, which is is just a bit too way out for many people (me included).

I look forward to it being rolled out to my Gmail account and giving it a go, and you expect it will also go to Google Apps customers in order to maximise the reach of the service.