Buzz tweets again – this time by Google

Google is creating a Buzz – literally. And the buzz in the industry is that it's riding on the runaway success of one of the fastest-growing social media platform – Twitter.

If imitation is the best form of flattery, Buzz is perhaps the finest complement to the efforts of Twitter that has turned 140 characters into the most effective means to communicate. Yahoo has also had its own Buzz, that started more than two years ago.

Google maintains that its objective is to enhance the services it offers to its users, but it is also apparent that it would discourage its patrons from using other platforms. "Buzz is a new way to share updates, photos, videos and more, and start conversations about the things you find interesting. You're already set up to follow people you e-mail and chat with the most," says its official invite for its users.

Can it get more similar to Facebook or Twitter Perhaps you can differentiate only when you use. Google also claims you can share things with the world or with select groups. Of course, there had to be a mobile version of the same and guess what – there is also a mobile version of Buzz with additional service that seeks to tie activities and updates to phone user's location.

Google has become an essential part of our life. It's spread across the World [Wide Web] and is almost as scary and monopolistic as Microsoft, the IT giant that it has confronted with its very own Google Chrome.

So is it any surprise that Microsoft is criticising this new Buzz? "Busy people don't want another social network, what they want is the convenience of aggregation. We've done that. Hotmail customers have benefitted from Microsoft working with Flickr, Facebook, Twitter and 75 other partners since 2008." – Microsoft said in an official statement on Google Buzz.

When one of the big guys launches a new product, competitors generally just sit it out and let the press do its thing. But Microsoft made a point of reaching out today with the quote above, criticising Google Buzz as "another social network" and noting that Hotmail has aggregated Flickr, Facebook, Twitter and other services since 2008.

Of course, Microsoft also owns a chunk of, and has a search deal with, Facebook.

So, will Google stop at this or tread more into the virtual world. Well, it's keeping a very democratic approach by opening Buzz to third-party developers in the hope of making it more attractive to its users and winning the support of geeks of the techno world.

Will it be the new buzz or will it fail to make any new wave? Techno pundits wonder and wait in dismay, while IT industry takes its rivalry beyond the virtual world, using all that it can – be it imitation or simply stealing the ideas.

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