Google Buzz takes on Facebook and Twitter

Todd Jackson, Product Manager for Google Buzz has just been showing off Google's latest sharing tool that is set to take the real time web to the masses.

Google Buzz is part of Gmail and key features include:

• Automatic friends lists (friends are added automatically who you have emailed on Gmail)
• "Rich fast sharing" combines image sources and real-time feeds like Picasa and Twitter into a single feed, with full-sized photo browsing
• Public and private sharing (switch easily between family and friends)
• Inbox integration (instead of emailing you with every update, like Facebook, Buzz features emails that update dynamically with Buzz thread content, ensuring you don't get emails you don't need or want)
• "Recommended Buzz" puts friend-of-friend content into your stream, learning which recommendations you want the more you use it and the more feedback you give it.

Voice-posting, location-awareness

Buzz really comes into its own on Google Android and Apple iPhone, where you can post entirely using your voice.

There are three components to Google Buzz on mobile: A new mobile Google homepage with automatic geo-location and Buzz integration; a web app for Google Android phones and iPhone which you can get here with some rather special speech-to-text powers; and a new version of the hugely popular Google Maps that ties your location with Buzz.

The location features are where Google Buzz will potentially pull users away from their Twitter and Facebook habits.

You can add it in as a layer in Google Maps to see what people are Buzzing about nearby, and, should you wish, chip in your ten-penneth to the Buzz conversation.

Google's Places database has also been updated to integrate Buzz.

Go to http://www.google.com/buzz to get involved.

See more on the mobile version of Buzz below:

Stay tuned for updates...