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Google’s Bundle of Goodies for Android Phones, Orkut and Buzz Widget

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Google has just released two new applications for all Android devices – Orkut and Google Buzz Mobile as a a widget.  Interestingly, while Orkut  may only be popular among in Brazil and India, this won’t stop Google from giving the site its own Android application. Besides there are probably thousands of Android phones in those two countries. Or perhaps with an Android app, Google hopes to get new members for Orkut.

The Orkut Android app is a pretty simple mobile social networking app which lets you keep in touch with your Orkut friends through live folders, photo uploads and scrap notification.

Live Folders lets you add the list of your Orkut friends as a live folder on your home screen letting you browse through the list even when your not under data network coverage.  The app also lets you directly upload photos from your Android gallery to your Orkut photo gallery. In addition, the Orkut Android app also lets you receive notifications whenever you have new scraps on Orkut. This notification appears on your Android device notification bar and clicking on it will take you to your scrapbook page in Orkut.

The other application is Google Buzz for Mobile which was made available fairly recently. But for this update, you can now add Google Buzz as a widget on your Android phone’s homescreen.  As a widget, Google Buzz lets you choose to tag your posts with the lcoation or place from which it was posted. It also lets you post buzz anytime, anywhere as well as share photos of where you are right now.

If you haven’t installed Google Buzz for Mobile yet on your Android phone, now is the right time to do so. Search for “Google Buzz” from the Android market. Once installed, you can add it to your phone’s homescreen by simply tapping on “Menu”  and select “Add > Widgets > Google Buzz”

Originally posted on March 18, 2010 @ 5:58 pm

Google Buzz for Mobile, Should Yelp, FourSquare and Others Be Afraid?

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So aside from the Buzz in Gmail, Google is simultaneously launching its latest social sharing service for mobile users – Google Buzz for mobile. Google describe it as – as service that  lets you post buzz and keep up with your friends when you’re away from your computer, obviously using your mobile phone. It also lets you identify places around you by using the location feature of your mobile handsets, select any of the places and attach it as a location tag to the buzz that you post. And it also lets you read what others have posted about that particular place.

Google Buzz for Mobile will remind you of other location-aware service proliferating on both the web and mobile platforms right now, such as FourSquare, Yelp, Gowalla and others. And knowing that Google has all the infrastructure to make this location-aware, social sharing service, should these other services have a reason to be afraid of?

The answer to that question would depend on how far users will embrace Google Buzz for mobile.  Google has already laid down the service’s backbone and the verdict is now in the hands of  Google Buzz for Mobile users.

In case you want to try out Google Buzz for mobile, you can access it by pointing your iPhone or Android’s browser to buzz.google.com (note: the site appears to be inactive yet as I got an error when I tried on my Nexus One) This web app gives you two views – “Following” shows buzz from people you follow and “Nearby” which shows public buzz tagged with a location near your current location.

You can also see Buzz as a layer on Google Maps for Mobile, as an icon the sits in the top right corner of the google.com homepage or as a voice shortcut available in the quick search widget on Android and in Google Mobile App for iPhone.

Originally posted on February 9, 2010 @ 5:17 pm

Google Wants the Social Buzz to Start and Happen in Gmail

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There you go, Google just announced not a new product but a new service that sits right into one its best and most widely used web service  – Google Buzz built right into Gmail.  Somehow it not only sounds similar to Yahoo! Buzz but the idea for both services is also somehow similar since both are social in nature.

Google Buzz is a new way to start conversations about the things you find interesting and share updates, photos, videos and more.  Buing built right inside Gmail, it basically brings with it a mass userbase that may or may not use it. Unlike Google Wave, which I think is also a social conversational tool, Google Buzz is not going to be in a prolonged beta state since it’s a totally new web service. It’s just more of a new feature of an already existing web service.

Buzz is Google’s latest attempt at coming up with social tool, short of making a social network, which it so eloquently failed at doing with various attempts in the past.  Google hopes to take some userbase from Facebook and Twitter and ushers in its entry into the social, real-time, conversational sphere which it was actually hoping to achieve with Google Wave but failed.

By building Google Buzz right inside Gmail, Google is assured that by hook or by crook, people will use it or at least try it out without having to learn something new. And hereby hoping that in time users will grow accustomed to it, and actually make it a part of their daily online social undertaking.

Oh yes, before I forget Google Buzz is connecting to the social world via integration with other social services including Twitter, Picasa, Flickr and Google Reader.  And it even has a mobile version which you can check out by pointing your phone’s browser to buzz.google.com.

Will Google succeed in turning Gmail as a social hub through Google Buzz? That will be interesting to find out.  In the meantime check out your Gmail account and see if Google Buzz is already activated.  You’d know it is if you see the “Buzz” link below “Inbox” on the left side of your Gmail Inbox.

Originally posted on February 9, 2010 @ 4:05 pm