Google Buzz, Email, Facebook…Cheesecake Soup?

The latest news in the social networking and technology worlds is that Google and facebook continue to go ‘head to head’ competing for YOUR time, your eyeballs, and your data.

Word has spread like wildfire about facebook’s "Project Titan", which would bring email to facebook, and Google Buzz which would bring social updates to your Gmail. There’s a lot that I could talk about here, but since this is ‘good soup’, let’s talk about soup.

There are a lot of things that I like in soup. There are things that I like, that others don’t. There are things that I like, and other things that I like, but I don’t want them all together in a soup. Will this be different?

As far as email in facebook…There have been times when I have thought

"I wish I could just get my email here, while I am here."

I have often wished that I could have my Google Calendar there as well (since that is where most of my appointments are made, events found, and invitations received). But, I’m not so sure how I feel about this email thing.

Here are my thoughts:

• I don’t really love my email.
• I love GMail, for it’s ability to filter out spam better than ANY service I have ever seen.
• I need email because I can’t currently get attachments in Fbook mail, etc. I get email because not everyone uses facebook mail I do know people that absolutely don’t want business emails in fbook mail.
• Most of all, I am thinking that I like facebook mail because most of what I get there , I want to receive. With the exception of a few groups that I accepted invites from who abuse the group email feature, I get stuff there from people that I like. I can’t say that about my email.
• Although Gmail does have an amazing spam filter, I still get what I call "spam that I signed up for". I get emails that I really don’t want from people because I signed up for something that they offered. ‘
• As a result, my email is the last place I go when I hop on my laptop. I check twitter, and facebook , then email. I can easily absorb huge mouthfuls of information and updates via twitter and facebook. Email, not so much. It’s cumbersome. Scan through for what is worth reading, open, read, digest, think about the reply, reply, etc. For many however, this would be a convenience, and if I could figure out how to keep the sales pitches and other stuff out, I would probably like it. How all that will work remains to be seen. Facebook is an information aggregator afterall!

Sometimes when you add something bitter to the soup, it makes the soup better. Sometimes it spoils the whole soup! Depending on how it’s done, this is a possibility for facebook.

Now, the buzz on Google buzz.

Adding social data to gmail may just sweeten the soup.

It will certainly liven up email, and make it more interesting and less one-dimensional.

MSN and Yahoo are both quickly rushing to point out that they have had these features for some time (reminds of little playground kids "I had it first!"). But, they didn’t have Gmail.

When my outlook crashed in 2008 and I looked for a way to get email (even though I had a hosted email account) and considered the options. For whatever reason, as I thought about them all, I didn’t have a perception that gmail was for novices, so I opted for Gmail. I discovered that they have an amazing spam filter, and became "hooked’ as a result. (Having seen the email boxes of many people who use yahoo and msn, I can honestly say that GMail has a huge advantage in it’s spam filter). So, whatever the reason is that people choose GMail over the others, the fact is that they didn’t leave GMail to get social updates when MSN and yahoo added them.

Maybe that is because the CORE product is of higher value to most. Whether people will now leave MSN or Yahoo, for GMail just to get updates in their email, remains to be seen, but I doubt it. We like what we are used to.

Think about how much people freak out over facebook simply changing the name of a newsfeed (without even moving a button!).

Now, the mobile part might change that. I recently set up a Microsoft Live account because of my phone. I forward my email to Gmail for spam filtering, but then forwarded it from there to Live because I have a windows mobile phone. Since outlook still doesn’t like me, and that is the windows mobile app for contacts and calendar, I did set up live in the hopes that I would be able to get better mobile access. (It didn’t work and I am looking a Google phones now, by the way).

The point is that I was willing to convert (at least in part) in order to have mobile access, and that is where Google Buzz may very well move some folks. We all seem to want as much info as we can get on our phones these days, and the easier you make it, the better.

Do I think people will leave facebook or twitter? Not a chance.

Might they update both from GMail if that is available? Sure.

Do they want yet another place to update? Hmm..not so much.

I can get and reply to facebook updates via tweetdeck (and sometimes do), but I still go there because it is a richer experience. I don’t go to twitter.com since the experience is richer on tweetdeck. If integration exists, and the experience is richer, then people will surely use the feature. I have friends that read and respond to much of their twitter stream from friendfeed, and spend lots of time there, because of the overall value to them.

Have people been willing to add yelp and foursquare to the places that they update? Yes. Each place has it’s own value and experience.

So far, Google hasn’t had a good track record at creating that in the social space. They do have a tremendous track record for ‘relevant search results’ however, and if their promise to ‘filter out the noise’ can be accomplished, then they will be leveraging what they are good at.

For facebook, adding email really isn’t ‘venturing too far out on a limb in terms of their core talent. The question is do we want it, and will it spoil the experience?

The bottom line is,

some things are good the way that they are. 

Adding other good things don’t always make them better.

Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t.

I like soup, and I like cheesecake, but I don’t want cheesecake in my soup!

How do you feel about social stuff in your email, and email in your social space?

New York Post Article

Mashable Article