Over on their official blog, Google has announced the shutdown of a number of Google products, including Jaiku, Google Labs and, unsurprisingly, Google Buzz.

Google Buzz? Oh, you remember – that was the Twitter killer that Google launched with much fanfare in February 2010. Ironically, the only thing it killed was Google’s standing in the world of social media.

Well, until Google+ came along. But, despite the hot start, I’m not convinced we won’t be having this same conversation about Google+ a year or two from now. In fact, I think that it’s increasingly probable, because I’m not sure that Google learned enough from the failure of Buzz.

Read more

I’ve finally been granted access to Google Buzz today, and after playing around with it for an hour or so, I have to say I really don’t like it. It’s not all bad, but it’s bad enough that unless Google makes some significant changes I’m fairly sure I’ll be removing it in the near future.

The Good

1. It looks a lot like Friendfeed. I’m very familiar with Friendfeed. This is comforting.
2. You can edit your updates. This is always welcome.
3. The comment system, again like Friendfeed, is nice.
4. Er…
5. That’s it.

Read more