SWOT Analysis of Google Buzz
Posted: Wednesday, March 31, 2010 by carlo in Labels: google, google buzz
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Strengths
Ø Google – Already number one search engine has established a brand name and it is not just a search engine nowadays, in which its users trust. It’s dependable, reliable and fast.
Ø Google needs very little end user marketing as the name itself is getting word by mouth publicity.
Ø Google has a simple interface and it gives comprehensive results without confusing its users.
Ø A large talent pool of engineers to pull from, Buzz stands on top of existing Gmail, mobile devices, and dominant search portal. As Buzz grows, they can integrate with all Google apps –and aggregate the entire internet.
Ø Google buzz is tied up in email. You don’t have to remember an additional website and username/password combination. It is just in one place. This enables Google Buzz to be practical and a lot more accessible for users.
Ø Google capitalizes on its search function. Searching people in Google Buzz returns a lot of results.
Ø Google Buzz allows people to import contents from Twitter, Picasa, Flickr and Google Reader.
Weaknesses
Ø It would make it nearly impossible to track conversations that starting having hundreds of comments and replies, you would spend too long reading and catching up with the conversation. You use Facebook to connect with friends, you use sites like LinkedIn to connect to your business contacts. The problem with Google Buzz is that it is sitting on email whereas friends and business contacts are in one place. People want to draw that line where in they separate the two.
Ø It is already late in the game. People have invested time to other social networking platform already like Facebook. It would be difficult to switch for those users who have built up their networks already.
Ø Google has had a series of social networking misfires from Wave, Dodgeball, Orkut. Google isn’t really successful in running social networking sites.
Ø Google can import tweets from Twitter but it can’t write your buzzes to Twitter which means you have to keep both accounts active.
Ø While Buzz and Twitter have some connectivity, there’s none at all between Buzz and Facebook. Buzz doesn’t import your Facebook status updates. It doesn’t post updates to your Facebook feed. It doesn’t display your friends’ feed updates. There’s no Facebook Connect integration at all. When asked about it this morning, Google said it has nothing to announce at this time.
Ø The interface that controls which posts goes to whom is horrible. You have to press the "public" button to see the "private" option. It's like the old press-Start-to-turn-off weirdness in Windows. It would be really nice if there was a shortcut, like the direct message syntax in Twitter ("D @username"). Or better yet, they should have just make two radio buttons instead of a drop down menu just for two items.
Ø Considering that it's a Google service, it is surprising to know how poor the search experience is in Buzz. The updates aren't live (as they are on Twitter search...or even Google.com when it includes Twitter items in its results), and they show up in what appears to be a random order. The order is probably page-ranked, but it's confusing to see status updates like that. There's also no help for creating advanced queries.
Opportunities
Ø The more information users share, tag, or create, the more data is created on Google’s platform to organize, giving them opportunity to monetize.
Ø Gmail is the third most popular Web-based email in the world, with 176.5 million unique visitors in December. It can use its large pool of users to get loyal users.
Ø Google Buzz is already connected to Android and Google Maps. In the future, we might see an even different view of what social networking is. They might include it other projects like Docs, Chrome and a lot. This makes the issue of being a late mover nonsense, Google might start a new trend, a first mover on that field that is.
Ø Google also plans to make Google Buzz available to businesses and schools using Google Apps, with added features for sharing within organizations.
Ø Just like Facebook, Google Buzz is an open system where in third party developers can develop applications that will run on Google Buzz. We might even see things like Farmville and Café World in Buzz.
Threats
Ø There seems to be no privacy so you don't need approval to follow someone. This can get very nasty complaints or even lawsuits just like Facebook before. A lot of users are not aware what are visible to others and what are not.
Ø Mainstay email companies like Microsoft, Yahoo, and AOL have already shown social features ‘bolted’ onto their email systems, and could pose threat, although success hasn’t been proven by any.
Ø Secondly, Facebook has made notions to develop an email web client “Project Titan” that will threaten tech savvy users competing for Gmail’s attention. Email addresses will end with @facebook.com This could threathen Google because it is just like Google Buzz. The thing is Facebook has a lot more uses. Facebook has 400 million users while Google’s Gmail only has 36 million.
Ø In building a social network on top of an email product, Google is following in the footsteps of Yahoo, which has taken a similar approach in efforts to keep up with Facebook but has seen lackluster results according to analysts.