Google announces Google Buzz:Another attempt to harness the content firehose

Today in a live press event, Google announced Google Buzz. They’re calling it “a new way to share.” It is launching today and will continue rolling out over the next few days. Google notes that this is not a finished product. Rather than create another new destination social network like Facebook, Twitter or Foursquare, Google announced that it has added social networking and location-based features into Gmail, Google Profiles, and Google Maps with a new service called Google Buzz. They are continuoulsy pushing it to integrate with more and more services. Buzz will also launch as an enterprise product and “will change the way businesses communicate.”

These are 5 key features of Buzz:

1. Auto-following -  you automatically follow people you contact frequently
2. Rich, fast sharing experience - you can share photos that are available via other media sites (such as Flickr)
3. Public and private sharing - you can post things for the whol world to see, or just to specific groups of people
4. Inbox integration - instead of having email notifications, special Buzz items come into your Inbox and show updates in real-time
5. Just the good stuff - Buzz learns from things that you like and hides the things that you don’t

3 new mobile product experiences launching today:

1. Use Buzz from Google.com - post a Buzz from a geotagged location
2. Buzz application (iPhone or Android) - See what people around you are saying
3. Update to Google Mobile Maps - Buzz layer added, allowing you to see nearby Buzzes and lets you post a Buzz along with a picture of where you are.

Google stressed on the importance of privacy as being a key reason in adding in the ability to decide who can see what. This also holds true of your Buzz profile. You will be able to select what you want showing on there as well. Future Google Wave integration was hinted to as well. Things such as real-time Buzz updates were derived from Wave technology.

With it, you can post status updates and share links, photos, and location-based updates with your Gmail contacts, and the content being posted by your contacts is automatically ranked according to your interactions with that contact. Ultimately, it’s a lot like FriendFeed but with a Google flavor.

But there will not be any Facebook integration. Tweets can be pulled into Buzz, but not the other way around. However, this could become possible in the future. Buzz updates are read directly in Gmail just like an e-mail thread, and posts can be kept only between friends or be published to the Web at large under the user’s Google Profile like a Twitter feed. All posts and comments appear in real time, and they can come from Twitter, Picasa, Flickr, and Google Reader. Location-based posts can be sent from buzz.google.com through the user’s mobile browser

Additionally, the Google Maps app for Android and Symbian received an update today which adds a Buzz layer for plotting buzzed-about spots. In the Google Search widget in Android, users can simply do a voice search where they say “Post Buzz” and their location will automatically be posted. Support for Google Buzz in Maps and via Google’s website is coming to BlackBerry soon. Windows Mobile and the Nokia S60 already have access via Google Maps, and will also be getting access via Google’s site soon.

The service will be rolled out to Gmail inboxes this week, the mobile site is currently live, and the updated Maps app is available now.

Users who already have a Google Profile and Gmail account don’t need to sign up for anything, and can immediately begin posting.