Google Debuts "Buzz" Social Features in Gmail

Mountain View,
Calif. – Google (NASD:  GOOG) on Tuesday introduced
Buzz, a new set of social networking features it will roll out to its 176 million
Gmail users in a bid to compete with similar offerings from Facebook, Twitter
and others.

Buzz lets users set and share "status updates" with their
Gmail contacts, and the rest of the world, if they choose.

Users can also share photos, videos
and links, and import content from Twitter, Picasa, Flickr and Google Reader.

A
version for mobile devices will let users provide location tags to their Buzz updates.

Google says it will automatically generate a Buzz friend list for users, based
on "the people you email and chat with the most."

Google’s previous
forays into social networking include Orkut — a social network that found
popularity mainly in Brazil
— and OpenSocial, its Web platform for building social applications.

Related Links:
http://snipurl.com/ubjln
(Google blog post)

http://snipurl.com/ubjl4
(PaidContent)

http://www.google.com/buzz