innonate

Andrew, you and I are on the same wave-length this morning, but coming out with different conclusions.

I ran “average stay” (time on site) stats for Facebook and Mail.Google.Com in Compete.

The difference is 17:43 for Facebook to 7:13 for Gmail.

I’m sure there are factors we should think about here, but fact of the matter is that social is where you live. People live in Facebook much more than they live in Gmail, and — most importantly — the demographic of people to “live in Facebook” is much wider than those who “live in Gmail.” Additionally, Gmail is like Twitter, in that most of its consumption, I’m sure, is though clients. Want a feature on Twitter.com to get picked up? Better hope that TweetDeck supports it. Want a feature on Mail.Google.com to get picked up? Better hope that Outlook supports it as well.

As long as people also use email from Yahoo! and Hotmail and company Exchange accounts, and as long as people access Gmail and GChat primarily though clients, Buzz is going to be hardpressed to compete with Facebook or Twitter or Foursquare.

They have a fighting chance, though. So I’m not counting them out yet.

thegongshow:

Many people seem underwhelmed by the arrival of Google Buzz.  I think SAI’s headline sums up the overall sentiment of the blogosphere nicely: “It’s Late, Boring, and Lame.”

However, I think this kneejerk reaction, especially since it comes from many bloggers that can’t even log into the service yet, underestimates one VERY important feature of Google Buzz.  It’s the old Brick-and-Mortar business adage: “Location, Location, Location.” See related pic:

Google Buzz is baked directly in Gmail.  I suspect many GChat users don’t know this, but GChat was originally a completely independent product from GMail.  GChat was a stand-alone client, just like AIM or Y!Messenger.  It also received a somewhat underwhelming welcome from the market, but once it was baked directly into GMail, and logged you in as soon as you opened your email, it became a killer feature.  The only difference between the original incarnation of GChat and the GChat of today is the location of interaction, being baked directly in GMail matters.

So, while I’d love to write-off Google Buzz as DOA like most bloggers, I’ll be curious to see how being baked into the Gmail interface will affect my own adoption of the product, along with the rest of Gmail users.