Would You Trade Google Buzz for a Paperweight?

Following Chitika Research’s post on Google’s (Lack of) Buzz, some blogs have been wondering if Buzz is on its way out. Yesterday, we received a news tip via Twitter from State Of Search, which deserved a follow up. After researching the backstory behind a new, greener, design of Coca-Cola bottles, these bloggers stumbled upon a […]

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April 01, 2010 Categories

Following Chitika Research’s post on Google’s (Lack of) Buzz, some blogs have been wondering if Buzz is on its way out.

Yesterday, we received a news tip via Twitter from State Of Search, which deserved a follow up. After researching the backstory behind a new, greener, design of Coca-Cola bottles, these bloggers stumbled upon a product section of eBay which, uncannily, read like a list of unremarkable product launches from an analog era.

Languishing, in a sort of digital limbo for unwanted collectibles destined for the scrap heap, alongside cans of New Coke, Coke II, and a paperweight of AOL’s Running Man (the latter of which I was almost tempted to buy), sat Google Buzz.

Speculation, around the office about why Google CEO Eric Schmidt would want to auction off Buzz, varied from the sublime to ridiculous.

  • Was it because Gmail users found that Buzz was not reflective of their real-life social graph?
  • Might it be because Google may face a class action lawsuit over Buzz privacy flaws?
  • Maybe Google Buzz had become a backdoor for China to spy on Vietnam?
  • Or was it really because the company needs to free up resources in order to develop their ad innovations lab and fund their green nuclear enrichment program?
  • Dissatisfied and suspecting that Schmidt is a data-driven marketer – and is unlikely to make a rash decision – we conducted a customary bit of research into the “search query” demand for the aforementioned items on eBay using Google Insights for Search.

    The “democratic power of the internet” never lies and in fact, if that were true, the data below struck me to be extremely revealing as to Schmidt’s possible state of mind on that fateful visit to eBay. It would seem that demand for Google Buzz in the USA, measured by internet search query volumes, is now worth little more than a paperweight.

    It also seems that Wave may have been up for auction previously (unconfirmed), but perhaps having never reached its minimum bid, simply got bundled unceremoniously into the Buzz firesale.

    Concerned that such a development means “social media gurus” may run out of social networks with which to spam their personal Twitter feed with automated platitudes – or, more frighteningly – that consumers may find themselves re-using the same “secret” login details, yet again, for yet another “mo-so-so” fad that they do not really understand, we returned to Buzz for nearly two minutes.

    Before realizing that the answer was staring us in the face.

    It’s just rubbish.

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